Clancy Productions @ Eclipse
2:00pm, Sat 21 Feb 2004
Score: 9
Short Review: Ooooh, topical…
Two men appear onstage, facing the audience. At first, you’re a little unsure whether this is theatre, or a standup act – a joke is told, an appreciative murmur is emitted from the audience, and the men just stand there, drowning in the immense ensuing awkward pause, their eyes darting back and forth across the crowd. The eyes are everything; the pauses are everywhere.
Sam and Bob’s banter is drenched in metaphors for America’s ills – and they frequently skip from one contrived symbolism to another, eventually resolving them all in a cunning script. The focus seems to be on our prevalence for that which is familiar, and the reluctance to embrace change – fear of the unknown – despite the problems that persist: “What do you mean, fix it? It’s taken so long to get it working this way.”
Despite the lofty message hidden behind the metaphors, this is a wonderfully amusing show, very tightly scripted. Well worth a look.