[2015087] Boris & Sergey Origins
Flabbergast Theatre @ Gluttony – La Petite Grande
2:15pm, Sat 28 Feb 2015
I loved my first Boris & Sergey experience, and was keen to show their anarchic puppetty madness to my Significant Other… but I was super-keen to see how their antics could be translated into a show suitable for children… especially given some of their adults-only hijinks (the extended audience face-fucking scene would be particularly inappropriate in a kids’ show, methinks).
And, to be quite frank: the translation from filthy-mouthed late-night cabaret into the realm of children has been done incredibly well.
The awesome chase scene remains largely intact, and stupidly good fun; Boris’ Withering Heights interpretation is still there. And, given that a large amount – if not all – of the material was also present in their Vaudevillian Adventure, I was genuinely surprised how easily it was cleaned up to become kid-friendly… and still remain incredibly funny. So much of the humour is found in the expressive movements of the leathery puppets; there’s a lot more physicality to their comedy than I’d previously given them credit for. That’s not to say that Boris & Sergey’s banter was squeaky-clean – there were still a few nods to the adults in the audience that led to confused looks on children’s faces.
And, best of all, the puppeteers that control Boris & Sergey – who unashamedly operate their creations in plain sight – genuinely look like they’re having fun together… sure, maybe a few of them looked a little worse for wear, but they appeared to crack each other up on occasions (possibly because of the kid-ification of some of their regular dialogue).
In short, Boris & Sergey Origins proved to be an uncompromised Boris & Sergey experience: an excellent, strange, imaginative, and funny puppet show for all ages. However, the overlap of material between their two shows means that you could get away with only seeing one of them.
(87) Boris & Sergey Origins: Kid-friendly B&S magic. All the comic puppetry, none of the face-fucking. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 28, 2015