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Potato: A Show That Will Save The World
Verdict: Admirable, enjoyable, unexpected and unpredictable
Saving the world is an overconfident claim for this comic cabaret, but it may well introduce to the world a new sub-genre within sketch comedy. Glossy, loud, colourful and ostentatious, Potato: A Show That Will Save The World is a collection of scenes and vignettes that could be confused with a circus troupe's talent show. The performers possess a huge range of talents in physical theatre, mime, ballet, accents, languages and playing obscure musical instruments. The resulting sketches are admirable in scale and craft and enjoyable as spectacle even when they occasionally fail to be amusing.
With figures from modern culture and recent or current political history popping up throughout the show, Potato: A Show That Will Save The World offers a surrealistic take on satire. At its finest, this involves a wheelbarrow-bound Osama Bin Laden advertising Monster Munch, a very funny down-trodden Hitler doing housework, and a trio of models that have given up breathing, having bones and being over five years old.
Potato flourishes as a show, despite several dud moments, thanks to the seamless flowing of one scene into another. Using many quick-gag sketches, the stage is never empty. Stock solo-characters return and overlap until they impede and intrude with uproarious consequences. The direction of Pedro Portugalezi is adventurous and concise, and, especially in scenes involving physical comedy and slapstick, timing is always immaculate.
Potato: A Show That Will Save the World may cause confusion, but that should be taken as a sign that the Potato ensemble are doing something unexpected and unpredictable within comedy.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Philip Burgers. Caroline Horton. Karin Maurer. Marcel Mohab. Federico Nieto-El Gazi. Salvador Puigmarti. Marta Zoboli. John Walton.
Company Credits: Writer - uncredited. Director - Pedro Portugalezi. Lighting Designer - Federico Niteo-El Gazi. Sound Designer - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - John Walton. Company - Potato Theatre. www.potatotheatre.com
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(c) Sara Pascoe 2007
reviewed Tuesday 14 August 2007 / Assembly @ Hill Street Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008