Flhip Flhop
Rannel @ Adelaide Town Hall – Meeting Hall
7:30pm, Mon 28 Feb 2011
The hip-hop comedy theatre of Flhip Flhop had garnered some real word-of-mouth press by the time we’d dragged ourselves out the back of the Town Hall; unfortunately, that hadn’t translated into crowds, and there was a pitiful collection of… well, less than two dozen in the wide (and deep) expanses of the Meeting Hall. It almost felt like an insult, really.
Two painter-decorators, Matt and Joey D, are doing a spot of work at a rich mate’s place. One fun-loving and always larking about, the other trying to responsibly tackle the job at hand (to distract himself from heartbreak). Their competitive nature is revealed early on as they one-up each other with their lunches, and there’s some great beat-boxing as they mime their record-scratching skills; but as they go about their task they uncover their mate’s turntables and records: mimed scratches become real, and they are fantastic.
Things go a bit pear-shaped with the decorating, there’s a rare-record MacGuffin, and a bit of conflict between the boys. It all gets resolved neatly, of course, but the plot is just an excuse to get as many chunks of hip-hop culture squeezed in as possible – the break-dancing lessons were bloody funny.
There’s no doubting that this is an incredibly polished production – one only has to watch the riotous dance with the record-cover masks to realise just how much effort has gone into Flhip Flhop. But unfortunately it all becomes a little too episodic for me – a bit of “why won’t my missus take me back / we have to paint our mate’s place”, followed by a bit of conflict, followed by a bit of hip-hop cleverness, then back to the start. Yes, it’s fun, it’s silly, and it’s certainly enjoyable, but it was just a little too repetitive for me by the end.