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February 25, 2005
Edith and the Yuppies
Ainslie and I have been living large on the Perth International Arts Festival scene this week, albeit in a lowbrow sort of way. I've saved up my Christmas and Valetine's Day presents of theatre tickets, which both happened in this same week.
HG Nelson was in town for his 'On The Lurk' one-man show, which was really one half of the radio show he does with Roy Slaven, with a little more preparation, and 100% more visual content. The premise of the show was 'The Lurk', which is the practise of standing around with nothing to do, but looking very busy about it. There are some brilliant bits (The Call of the 2004 Grand final in under 5 minutes), some off-colour bits (Art Of The Stool) and some bits that just didn't work, but overall, a great night of ranting from one of the masters of talking rubbish for hours at a stretch.
The moment I saw the advertising for 'The Pleasure Of Their Company', I knew I had to be there, two of my favourite Australian performers - Glynn Nicholas and Shaun Micallef - were doing a two man show. With Nicholas' mastery of physical comedy and mime, and Micallef's turn of phrase and slightly less-controlled slapstick style, I was expecting brilliance.
They almost got there. The show is a series of sketches, much like Micallef's 'Pogram' (sic) on the ABC (his best work). Some worked, some fell flat, and others were (literally) magic. With a little more savage editing, this partnership might work well on TV. I'd like to see more of a story bringing these two geniuses together - they'd make such a great 'odd couple' partnership. Their failed individual sitcoms ('The Glynn Nicholas Show' (which they both wrote) and 'Welcher and Welcher') shows that they can write clever stuff, and understand comic timing, but they just need a better editor)
I'm not sure that qualifies as real, high-brow theatre-going, but I had a great time. I'm glad I have a wife who understands my sense of humour and is willing to accompany me to strange shows like this.
Posted by David at February 25, 2005 10:07 PM | ID:378
