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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Probe
Verdict: Anarchic, extremely funny
London - Soho Theatre - 13, 20, 27 Apr, 4 May 04
Even before the show starts, comedian Adam Longworth trolley-dollies and scatters his way through surprised Japanese tourists outside the Soho Theatre with a welcoming cry of ‘Cocksucker’.
Probe is a comic take on the talk show (writes Alana Pryce) - a quirky event now in its sixth season . Host Andre Vincent invites the audience to prod, probe and pry into the psyches of the guests. Guests are created by a set of sharp, witty and talented character comedians. God help them if they haven’t done their homework: the challenge of improvisation is rapidly clear as the audience’s slippery questions pile up.
Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde (brother and sister actors Adam Longworth and Shelley Longworth) - grown up since they first appear in the show - have entered the porn industry. It’s a cue for Willy Wonka jokes and chocolate-log questions, promising apparently a long night of jokes de toilette. Steve Furst (Little Britain)’s hard-eyed Scottish security guard marks a sharp change in direction. He’s tough, embittered and volatile – a Glasgow kiss come to life. The accent is solid, and the performance convinces - even when the actor’s fake moustache falls off. He’s followed by a Birmingham psychic, Thai Ladyboy, and a batty young cook. There’s a supremely real and breathtakingly incompetent middle class mountaineering duo – the kind whose expeditions lurch towards a remake of Into the Void.
Ben Willbond’s acting is the night’s piece de resistance. He opens with a young city stockbroker, successful with money but a real loser with women – a character true to the ghastly Fulham-types packing All Bar One. He’s on next as an Army Captain. The two roles seem initially so similar that the audience is ready to turn - until he drives home such a hard point about the character’s hypocrisy that he brings them back with a start. Ben Willbond shows that anyone can deliver the surface of an upper-class twit, but to delve into the subtlety of a character and succeed is something else entirely.
Credits (alpha order): Steve Furst (Little Britain). Adam Longworth (XFM). Shelley Longworth (The Fimbles). Phil Nichol, (Perrier nominee). Lizzie Roper. Ben Willbond (Ealing Live). And special guests. Hosts - Iain Coyle, Andre Vincent. Technical: Venue staff. Production, writing, direction - Probe.
END
© Alana Pryce 2004
reviewed Tuesday 20 April 04 / Soho Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
