Uber Alice – the elaborate adventures of a New Zealand manicurist…
EpicWorlds @ North-South Dining Room
9:15pm, Sat 6 Mar 2004
Score: 7
Short Review: Ridiculously fun
A one-man show presented by Jonno Katz, Uber Alice describes the rise of New Zealand’s greatest deity, Alice Winkins, a manicurist fated to rule the universe. Erm… yes. And the joyous thing? That’s about the least absurd aspect of the show.
With a biblical-like opening, we are introduced to God and the premise for the play. Then Jonno appears, accompanied by a hideously amusing Kiwi accent, and proceeds to tell the story of Alice. Her escape from her mum, like much of the rest of the show, was brilliantly played out, as Katz swaps simply between the two characters in a brilliantly funny bit of theatre. Likewise, the audience-assisted sex-scene is cunningly done – after which Jonno re-appears clad in a dressing gown, accompanied by a bag of cookies he shares with the audience in a hospitable interval.
At one stage, after Katz had sneezed unexpectedly, he told the audience (through his thick accent) “That wasn’t in the script, that bit.” My response was one of disbelief: “There’s a SCRIPT?!” Actually, that’s a little unfair. This was a unique bit of comedy – original in both content and presentation, the laughs often came from the ridiculous nature of Jonno’s ramblings – the flashback to a tale of “heartbreak, treachery and abuse” was pants-wettingly good.
Not bad, not bad at all.