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drinks Monday 2 June 08
DUBLIN ... Colman Higgins describes the scope and history of Dublin Gay Theatre Festival ... and reviews two of its shows ... Down Dangerous Passes Road ... Confessions of A Mormon Boy /// LONDON ... film on now ... La Question Humaine / Heartbeat Detector /// BRIGHTON ... It's on till 26 May and here's at least 20 Things you might want to know about Brighton Fringe /// PEOPLE ... Who was there at Fringe Report's First Monday 5 May - photographs & article /// CULTURE ... One Culture ... film screening 30 May booking now ... details
Hopkins & Glover
Verdict: Deft character comedy
Note - Billed in Fringe Programme as 'The Men Who'
John Hopkins (the tall one) and Richard Glover (the shorter one) deliver an hour of deft and enlightened character comedy and sketches - an astute mix of live performance and video.
Kowalski and Penchanski (Hopkins, Glover) are on, camp cop and prisoner respectively. It's an interrogation to the words of Peter Piper picked a pepper, Mary sells sea shells at the sea shore, at breakneck speed.
Fabrice de Connard (John Hopkins) mounts the stage and potentially all the women in the audience ('You have a beautiful smile, especially with those tits'), wooing them with the promise of anal sex, dirty Polaroids, self-doubt ('Sometimes I disgust myself), and a tender love-ballad called Fucking In Ze Ass
CopyCat introduces two characters who can't avoid speaking exactly the same words. It's technically extraordinarily clever, more importantly it's blissfully funny. In The Colonel and Rawlings (respectively John Hopkins, Richard Glover), the Colonel has a rotating arm; and Rawlings an ingenious solution.
With the Son of God increasingly excluded from the Churches of England & Scotland, he's seen more often on film (
The Passion of The Christ) and comedy theatre (Holy Days).
Hopkins and Glover may risk Presbyterian denunciation by introducing Jesus Christ as a stage character in the Calvinist stronghold of Edinburgh. But, as with The Life of Brian, the Son of God is treated with subtle respect. Richard Glover's Christ sports a wig of blond curls, swats cherubim like flies, clarifies that his names do not include 'H, or Fucking', and delivers a zesty summary of the bible.
Other characters include Charles Bigface Davies (John Hopkins) - shy merchant banker with a surprising talent; neighbour David Lamb (Richard Glover) - who hasn't killed his wife; Malcolm (John Hopkins) - public-school Far East trekker.
On to Dean Martin's Amor, off to Cole Porter's Begin The Beguine, these two inspired comedians create a radically different area of comedy that is entirely their own.
Credits: Written & performed by John Hopkins and Richard Glover. Original Songs - words & music by John Hopkins and Richard Glover: The Atmosphere, Food Scandal, Big Fat Lezza On Greenham Common, Too Much Time Wasting Time Together. Film actors: Jessie Brooks, Hannah Melbourn; John Hopkins & Richard Glover. Technical operator - Julia Slienger. Director Izzy Mant.
END
John Park
reviewed 15 July 04 / Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
