[2014034] Gravity Boots: Can you believe we’re in a forest?
Gravity Boots @ Tuxedo Cat – Raj House – Room 1
7:15pm, Thu 20 Feb 2014
At the start of this year, I made a couple of promises to myself: I wasn’t going to get sick during the Fringe (hence the fist-bumps, rather than handshakes, to people I met), and I was going to see Gravity Boots’ new show early and write about it in-season. And whilst I successfully avoided any sickness, and I did see the show “early” (hey – show thirty-four is pretty early for me), the writing thing… well, that didn’t pan out as well as expected.
Still, April’s not bad. Not too bad, anyway. For me.
On the back of that statement – and the two full Fringe shows that I’ve written about in the past – it should be abundantly clear that I love the ‘Boots. And after last year’s show delivered the goods (something of which I was concerned, given Paul Foot’s directorial involvement), I was bloody keen to see what they could conjure up under the guidance of someone for whom I have massive respect: Steve Sheehan.
And, after they took to the stage in overcoats with faces garishly lit by flashlights, I hesitated a moment – had they left the trademark white long-johns behind? Was the absence of their traditional garb metaphorically indicative of a more traditional approach from Messrs Cleggett and Lloyd-Smith?
Short answer: no. Within moments of starting their dialogue, it became clear that the ‘Boots were just as surreal as ever. Sketch after sketch of bizarre characters in nonsensical situations were flung at the audience, from anxious soul-hunting ghosts to slyly scheming arachnids to gloriously malfunctioning robots to drug-addled Victorian women…
Despite the fact that it constantly triggers the Absurd Overload alarms in one’s brain, the writing feels tight – the more I see of the ‘Boots, the more I realise that these sketches are not just brain-dumps of zany ideas. They’re crafted, and they’re crafted by mad geniuses, and – if anything – their output is becoming ever-so-deliciously darker. The imprisoned teddy-bear sketch was the only piece I’d seen before (in embryonic form), with the rest being all-new material; this just demonstrates that their process of churning out a new show of material every month is paying off.
It’s all still head-scratchingly bizarre, and on the few occasions that I sensed a conventional narrative thread emerging, some twist comes roaring in from left-of-two-suburbs-over-from-left-field. I will never tire of this surrealism, and I remain anxious to see what the Gravity Boots lads get up to next (nudge nudge, wink wink).
(34) Gravity Boots: Can you believe we're in a forest?: Can't believe they can keep upping the ante. Surrealicious! #ff2014 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 20, 2014