fortyfivedownstairs.com

See article in its original context here by Byron Bache for Crikey.

The new Melbourne production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins has its problems, but with a stellar cast and faultless material it’s still worth a look.

To most Australians, Taft is a hairspray and not a president. All but the broadest strokes of American political history are a blank for most of us, so a show about the strange assortment of people who’ve attempted to assassinate American presidents is a vastly different animal here than it is on its native turf. Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s misfit musical opened last night at fortyfivedownstairs, and like the assassins it condemns and celebrates, it hurtles towards its goals with varying degrees of success.

Assassins doesn’t really have a narrative — its events happen over a span of 166 years. We go from John Wilkes Booth, the disgruntled actor who shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865, all the way through to John Hinckley, Jr, who shot Ronald Reagan to impress a teenage Jodie Foster.

Weidman’s book sparkles like it was written yesterday, but the showpiece here really is Sondheim’s score. Twenty-three years after its off-Broadway debut, it still packs a mean punch. Arguably his only pop song, the killer love duet “Unworthy of Your Love” — sung by John Hinkley, Jr and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme not to each other but to the objects of their affection: Jodie Foster and Charles Manson — is twice as heartbreaking and three times as fascinating as anything Stephen Schwartz has turned out. Nick Simpson-Deeks as The Balladeer — who has possibly the prettiest voice in musical theatre — gets the best material in the show, sharing The Ballad of Booth and The Ballad of Guiteau with the respective assassins, and busts out his masterful acting chops in his eleven-o-clock transformation into Lee Harvey Oswald.
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See article in its original context here by Kate Herbert for Herald Sun.

The killers of American Presidents may seem unlikely and macabre characters for a musical, but Stephen Sondheim, noted for his unusual themes, depicts this motley collection of nutters in his revue-style musical Assassins.

Assassins, with Sondheim’s eclectic music and lyrics and a witty book by John Weidman, is an old-style, musical revue set in a fairground where the proprietor of a shooting gallery provides the would-be assassins with guns.

This production, by new company Watch This, captures the bizarre nature of the characters and the wry humour, political satire and moral commentary of the script, but the quality of the singing and acting is uneven.

In a compelling, abstract world, killers from different time periods collide, sing about their obsessions, explain their motives through monologues, scenes and songs, including the poignant November 22, 1963, in which people recall where they were when Kennedy was shot.

Sondheim’s idiosyncratic songs straddle a range of styles and periods, but all bear his signature style and ironic tones.

Nick Simpson-Deeks, with his bright, clear, expressive vocal tones, provides the strongest all-round performance, playing the Balladeer who narrates the story, giving a sympathetic, nuanced portrayal of the repressed Lee Harvey Oswald.
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See article in its original context here by Rebecca Harkins-Cross for The Age.

Reviewer rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Stephen Sondheim
fortyfivedownstairs
Until April 21

Staging an independent musical is not an easy affair, when you’re up against budgets of the likes of last year’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the most recent Stephen Sondheim musical to play in Melbourne.

Director Tyran Parke has done remarkably well with this production of Sondheim’s lesser-known Assassins, first staged off-Broadway in 1990 and locally by the Melbourne Theatre Company in 1995.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre and consequent debates over gun control, its themes are eerily apposite. This revue-style musical reimagines the assassins who have targeted American presidents, from Lincoln’s infamous slayer, John Wilkes Booth, to the forgotten ones who missed their target.

Assassins questions the flipside of the American character – how the God-given right to the American Dream can turn murderously sour; why the lost, the downtrodden or the delusional will express their frustrations with firearms when they don’t win the prize.

This production requires a large ensemble, and here their ranges vary considerably. Nadine Garner is a joy as Sara Jane Moore, a scatterbrained, droll and screechy housewife who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford. Shane Nagle, Aaron Tsindos and Nick Simpson-Deeks also put in good performances.

A few bung notes early on are soon smoothed out – though some questionable accents endure – and the final numbers are brilliantly realised.

This is social critique with high kicks and harmonies.

See article in its original context here by Bradley Storer for Theatre Press.

See article in its original context here by Reuben Liversidge.

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins is rarely performed in this country. Australian audiences’ only chance previously to see a production of this clever, unsettling and brilliant musical theatre work was almost 20 years ago, when the Melbourne Theatre Company included the show as part of its 1995 season.

Assassins uses a revue-like structure to explore the lives and times of nine disturbed individuals through a kaleidoscopic melding of song, historical event and meta-theatrical hypothesis. Each character in the show attempted to kill a US president and about half succeeded. Assassins neither condemns nor condones the actions of these people. The authors explore the notion of a perceived right these criminals feel they have or an abstract ‘American dream’ that they feel they have been deprived of fulfilling. But, is this a uniquely American experience? All societies have had political change and oftentimes this change occurs swiftly and violently. Assassins doesn’t ask how these catastrophic events occurred, but why.

Director Tyran Parke’s production almost succeeds in living up to the magnificence of the material. He has assembled a truly stellar cast and nearly all of the performances in Assassins are superb. They are sad, hilarious, brooding, brave and horrifying. Mark Dickinson leads the cast with his commanding physicality and phenomenal vocals; an absolutely stunning turn as John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln. An early sequence detailing Booth’s final hours in a burning barn, including the hauntingly beautiful soliloquy ‘The Ballad of Booth’ is particularly moving.
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See article in its original context here by Anne-Marie Peard for Aussie Theatre.

Sondheim fans don’t need anyone to convince them to see a production of Assassins, and they are selling out fortyfivedownstairs every night to see a new company, Watch This, take aim and fire.

Assassins was first produced Off-Broadway in 1990 and at London’s Donmar Warhouse in 1992, the MTC showed it to Melbourne in 1995 and the Broadway revival was set to open in 2001, but was postponed in the light of the September 11 attacks and the nature of its material. It’s a show about people who assassinated or tried to assassinate US presidents.

With a book by Tony Award nominee John Weidman, it’s a bitter and darkly funny look at American culture and how the American dream can go so wrong that some need to blame and punish. By presenting characters before the moment that assassination/attempt marked them as insane and unAmerican, it presents people who are not asking for sympathy or even empathy, but are simply seen as more than just the act of violence they are remembered for.

Watch This is Sonya Suares’s (who was General Manager of Red Stitch) new company and this debut has assured that Melbourne’s music thearte lovers are already looking forward to their next production.

With a rehearsal time that was counted in days, not weeks, their Assasins is assured and complex and deserving of its full houses. While there’s an inconsistency among performances and voices, this doesn’t take away from the production and leaves us imagining how amazing they will be with the support and funding to rehearse for a reasonable amount of time.

Musically, well it’s Saint Stephen Sondheim so it captures the inner turmoil and emotions of its characters in ways that are felt more than heard, then hangs in your head until you buy the CD, know the work backwards and find yourself singing it at inappropriate moments. The small orchestra can’t grasp the intricacies of his composition, but again all this does is wish them the support to have a bigger orchestra.
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See article in its original context here by Tintin Rahman.

Squawk It’s a murder of crows and parrots

Is that a parrot?” I ask, gesturing to the painting of a blue and green bird.
“Yes. It’s a Twenty-eight.”
“It’s a what?”
The redhead with ringlets in a blue and white spotted dress and black tights, the daughter of a bird-watcher, then explains that Twenty-eight parrots (also known as Port Lincoln parrots on the west coast) were named so because the sound they made was like the word twenty-eight.

Twenty-eight!” she squawks, as an example. There’s the irreverent Australian humour. She then tells me the story of that particular painting, Shuddering Echoes I.

A friend of a friend shot a twenty-eight. My friend then gave it to me. Dead birds are easier to paint,” she says smilingly.

By ‘she’, I mean 38 year-old Clare McFarlane, whose bird-centric exhibition, Murders and Echoes, is showing atfortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne CBD until April 20. Yes, while we are moving from summer to autumn, it’s best to think of pleasant indoor activities and events. Why not go on a ‘gallery crawl’ along Flinders Lane? While you’re doing that, check out fortyfivedownstairs, which is in full swing.

Besides Clare’s collection, Michael Pearce’s Unwrapped Hong Kong, a silent commentary about Hong Kong architecture, is on in the larger room at fortyfivedownstairs. Step onto the dark wooden floorboards spattered with white dots of paint and stare at some birds and buildings while listening to poignant instrumental and classical music. The plain scrolls of grey and blue skyscrapers made me think of how going overseas (the artist lived in Hong Kong for two years) has a profound effect on one’s life, how it broadens your perspective. Some Australians go to Japan and bring home a wife. Others go to Hong Kong and can’t forget the architecture. They can’t bring it back so they replicate it in their art.
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Sondheim is the master of the musical and this little seen dark comedy is delightful in its score. The plot revolves around some of the most and least infamous would-be Presidential assassins in US history. Some names you will know, John Wilkes Booth and John Hinckley, and others are less well known.

Whilst the book by John Weidman is average the performances from the entire ensemble and Sondheim’s marvelous musical numbers more than made up for this.  Mark Dickinson’s portrayal of John Wilkes Booth struck the perfect note between hilarity and tragic irony. Vocally he was powerful. He inhabited the role of the vain actor so completely that the audience felt as if they were living within the character. The duet, The Ballad of Booth, performed by Dickinson and Nick Simpson-Deeks, as the balladeer, was impeccable.  In typical Sondheim fashion each character was required to seamlessly blend what are ostensibly two different songs into one, picking their key out of the air. It was quite simply marvelous and without a doubt the best song of the evening. Simpson-Deeks is an accomplished vocalist and owned his role as the balladeer whilst later transforming into a heart-breaking portrayal of possibly America’s best-known assassin.

Aaron Tsindos gave a brilliant performance at Charles Guiteau, endearing all the way to the gallows. Again Simpson-Deeks was called upon to chronicle the demise of Guiteau as the balladeer creating the second stand out number of the evening. Nadine Garner proved she has great skill as a comedic theatre performer with possibly the best part of the book, Sarah Jane Moore. She wonderfully brought to life a sad and forgotten housewife whom it was impossible for the audience not to love.  Her comic timing was impeccable. And while we’re on the topic of impeccable comic timing, Shane Nagle rates a special mention.  As a struggling Santa Claus and would be Nixon assassin, Nagle delivered his monologues with such pathos that you almost found yourself rooting for him to succeed in his plot.

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Sam Shepard

See article in its original context here by John Bailey on Sydney Morning Herald.

Sam Shepard is one of the most-performed playwrights of the late 20th century but his non-theatrical writing is far less familiar to playgoers.

A new “pop-up” theatre company is hoping to change that by staging a season inspired by Shepard’s short stories, though their subjects don’t sound too dissimilar to the figures who populate his stage plays: “Loners, losers, tough guys, introverts.”

Like Chekhov, the writer’s short fictions and stage work can be considered complementary rather than in opposition, and the production by the National Theatre-trained members of The Graduates aims to emphasise the inherently dramatic scope of the former.

Cruising Paradise – Tales by Sam Shepard opens on April 25 at forty fivedownstairs, tickets: fortyfivedownstairs.com or 9662 9966.

See article in its original context here by Erin James on Aussie Theatre.

We chat with actor Tod Strike about his role in the new production ofAssassins, which will commence performances tonight at fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne.

Tod Strike was most recently seen in the 2012–13 tour of South Pacific and the Australian Premiere Production of Love Never Dies where he understudied the roles of Raoul and Phantom, performing both on numerous occasions.

What prompted you to audition for this particular production of Assassins?

Actually Tyran Parke, the director, asked me to audition for the role of Zangara. He said “I think you’d like the ‘sing’ of the role” so he sent me out the script to have a look at and once I read it and looked at some music, it was a no brainer. Had to do it.

It was also an added bonus of auditioning for a brand new company that had people behind it that I respected and had wanted to work with for a while. It ticked all the boxes.

Have you worked at fortyfivedownstairs before?

No I haven’t. I’ve only seen one thing at 45 downstairs — a Trevor Ashley show. Of course It was faaaaboulousss! But I remember thinking at the time that this venue would make a great setting for a small niche like musical or cabaret. The intimacy allows you to explore the audience reactions and grab their attention in a way that you obviously can’t in a huge theatre. Agreat space right in the heart of Melbourne.

Have you worked with Tyran before as a director?

I have only worked with Ty as a fellow cast member — South Pacific for The Production Company– but never as a director. This was actually the biggest drawcard for me to do this show. He is honestly one of the most talented, hardest working artists and directors I know and always comes from a place of ‘where the drama is taking us’. The emphasis is heavy on the acting driving the show and what the text is saying first and foremost. This is an area that i wanted to move into as a singer and believe all good musical theatre should stem from. The piece and what it has to say driving everything forward rather than the songs being the most important dramatic aspect. If i had my study time again I would have been an actor who sings rather than a singer who acts. You know what I mean?
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See article in its original context here by Sarah Walker on Stonnington Review.

When: Until April 21

Where: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, city

Bookings: Call 9662 9966 or visit fortyfivedownstairs.com

A song and dance about nine assassins, or would-be assassins, of American presidents is a surefire way to get audiences worked up after the laughter has subsided.

That’s the view of Windsor-based actor Matt Holly (pictured right in green), who plays John Hinckley jnr in Academy Award-winner Stephen Sondheim’s blackly comedic Assassins.

Hinckley tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 to impress actor Jodie Foster during a long obsession with her.

The nine assassins include John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln in a theatre in 1865, Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Sarah Jane Moore, who made an attempt to kill President Gerald Ford in 1975.

“It’s like taking the camera lens of history and moving it to a different angle to show their inner workings,” Holly says.

“You will laugh at some of them, and sympathise even.  Then it hammers home that what these people did was real.”

Holly was suitably disturbed when he first saw Assassins in 2010, performed by third-year National Institute of Dramatic Art students.

Holly’s credits include a national tour of West Side Story in 2010, the world premiere of the Cat Stevens show Moonshadow, the Australian premiere of Love Never Dies and a national tour ofA Chorus Line.

He says Assassins, directed by Tyran Parke, has one of the most talented ensembles he has worked with, including Nadine Garner.
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See article in its original context here by Andrew Furhmann for Time Out.

Sondheim’s black comedy Assassins comes to fortyfive downstairs, and Time Out has director Tyran Parke in its sights.

Set amidst the rubble of a travelling carnival, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s black comedy Assassins takes the audience on a musical romp through the minds of nine disturbed characters, each each one gunning for an American president. Starring Nadine Garner and Nick Simpson-Deeks,Assassins is a Broadway classic with bang, set to challenge and entertain in equal proportions.

Time Out spoke with director Tyran Parke ahead of the show’s premiere.

Hi there Tyran, what was your first Sondheim experience?
My first “Sondheim experience” was when my group of school friends didn’t know what to buy me for my fourteenth birthday. They knew I was into musicals so they bought me the video of Sunday in the Park with Georgestarring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. I did not understand what it was about, but I was intrigued by it and completely transported by the performances. Many years later I happened to run into Mandy Patinkin on the Street in New York and later met Bernadette Peters in an elevator. Maybe it was inevitable that I would play the role of George in the Australian Premiere.

Where did you first come by Assassins?
To be honest, when I was studying at WAAPA. The third years were doing it when I was in second year and they didn’t have enough guys, so a few of us stepped up into the chorus. I loved it – the show, and also the ability to play with the cool group. I never dreamed I would be directing it years later with such a top cast.

Broadway and political assassination – it makes sense, right?
Well, it did to Sondheim who, thank God, has made a career out of re-inventing the form of musical theatre. To be honest, the characters are so theatrical and Sondheim was very clever to create Assassins as a revue, the musical numbers are all based on popular American styles of the past 200 years so it has a historical context we can easily connect to. He writes musicals for people who don’t like musicals – they are dark and challenging and always very funny but BLACK. Assassins seems somehow perfect for his tastes and we are certainly the richer for it.
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See article in its original context here on Stage Whispers

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s killer black comedy (musical) Assassins kicks off amidst the lurid debris of a travelling carnival, taking the audience on a kaleidoscopic ride through the psychological landscape of nine notorious historical figures – men and women who, for one reason or another, made attempts on the lives of American presidents.

Directed by Tyran Parke, with Nick Simpson-Deeks as Lee Harvey Oswald and Nadine Garner as Sarah Jane Mooreamong the cast of this new production at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs in April, Assassinsdelves into dark side of the American Dream and its aggrandising notions of entitlement and “manifest destiny”.

“I didn’t want to kill anybody, but there comes a point when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun.“ Sarah

With a score by Stephen Sondheim (Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist, also known for Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Follies)and a book by John Weidman, Assassins examines the lives, loves and lunacy of nine American assassins, including John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sarah Jane Moore.

“Assassins is both terrifically funny and terrifying,” says director, Tyran Parke. “As a show, it strikes that perfect balance between challenging ideas and sheer entertainment.
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See article in its original context here on Broadsheet.

Yunuen Pérez, costume designer, and Sissy Reyes, cinamatographer, join together in this exhibition of striking and vibrant photographs labelled Mex-tli, Mexican Goddess. With only twelve images to the exhibition, the attention to detail is very clear, as each piece being shown tells a beautiful and poignant story of its own. The images challenge the stereotypical conception and representation of Mexican women in Australian society. Each photograph combines the the themes of displacement, tradition and ritual. The exhibition will take place at fortyfivedownstairs in May.

See article in its original context here by Erin James for Aussie Theatre.

Watch This’ brand new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins commences at fortyfivedownstairs this Wednesday night starring Nadine Garner and Nick Simpson-Deeks. Erin James spoke with Director Tyran Parke about this exciting new company and their wonderful new production.

Method for a successful musical:

1. Choose your actor driven, well crafted show

2. Enlist a passionate director with a strong vision

3. Cast a group of dedicated and spirited actors to bring the piece to life

4. Combine all ingredients in a rehearsal room for four weeks (10am — 6pm), support them with a venue and promotion, and watch your masterpiece unfold.

Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? But after speaking with Tyran Parke last week about his upcoming production of Assassins, it seems the producers (startup company Watch This, with Sonya Suares at the helm) might have followed this method to a tee. And the product is set to be sensational.

“It’s a great cast — a great cast, Erin, I love them” Parke told me one morning before rehearsals commenced last week. “They bring a huge wealth of preparation and experience I kind of have a show crush on all of them!”

Starring Nadine Garner (most recently seen as Jean in Dr Blake’s Mysteries on ABC), Nick Simpson-Deeks, Matt Holly, Tod Strike, Sonya Suares, Luigi Lucente, Mark Dickinson and more, the company of actors Parke has assembled for this musical are top notch. Parke explains that the month long rehearsal period has been an incredible journey, and every member of the company has put it an enormous amount of effort to bring the show to life.
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See article in its original context here by Victor Perton, ANZMEX President

Next month, Melbourne will see an interesting photographic exhibition Mex-tli, Mexican Goddesses that consists of 12 images created by artists Yunuen Pérez Martínez and Sissy M. Reyes.  It will be exhibited in one of my favourite galleries forty-five downstairs.   I was lucky enough to catch up with the artists and have them answer a few questions for ANZMEX members and our friends.

How did you come to settle in Australia?

YP: I came to Australia in 2007 to study a Postgraduate Diploma at the Victorian College of the Arts. After graduation, I stayed in Melbourne as my partner is studying a PhD. I have been working in the Melbourne arts scene since 2007.

SR: I came to Australia as a student. It was not my intention to stay but I started getting jobs in film production and advertising so I decided to stay a bit longer. I want to live in Mexico as well but for now, my career is developing in Australia.

What do you enjoy the most about living in Australia?

YP: I enjoy the multicultural experience in the everyday life. I also believe Melbourne is a cultural hub in high demand and working as a designer in this city is enriching due to the multidisciplinary projects you can get involved.

SR: I was intrigued about the relationship between the country’s rich cultural diversity and what I thought was an unfulfilled sense of identity of “what it means to be Australian”. In Mexico, cultural identity though complex is very loud, colourful and clear but Australian culture is much more subtle. Getting to know these subtleties has made me enjoy and appreciate life here much more.
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PREPARE for a sensory overload of epic proportions when this trio hits the stage.

The DC3, with former TISM frontman Damian Cowell at the helm, will have you rocking out while trying to catch your breath as you’re bombarded with a flurry of subjects.

Cowell has taken his satirical dissing to another level as he explores our obsession with pop culture – from Chiko Rolls to reality television, politics and everything in between.

There is so much fodder, it can be hard to keep up with his clever rapid-fire insights.

No target is considered too soft either, with songstress Delta Goodrem, former player agent turned comedian Ricky Nixon and notorious party boy Corey Worthington all copping a serve or two.

While the songs and acerbic monologues will keep you engaged, you will also find the running dialogue floating across the wall behind them entertaining as well.

With a million thoughts/witticisms/observations flying around the room, it’s not always easy to follow it all, but it’s definitely well worth the effort.

From the music to the crass banter, there is plenty of enjoy about this show.

Oh, and the whole Wagner’s Ring Cycle theme? It’s not a necessity to know much, if anything, about the German composer. Just go along and be ready to be entertained.

Stars: ****

See article in its original context here by Cameron Woodhead for The Age.

This triple bill of musical comedy acts at fortyfivedownstairs has some high notes.

The stand-out is The Ringtone Cycle, which has bugger all to do with Wagner, really. The show’s flimsy hook is a grant application to remake Wagner’s Ring as an ultra-short performance installation choked with modish ideas, a critique of the attention-sapping nihilism of 21st-century technology.

But that’s just a pretext for a diatribe from the brains behind TISM, Damian Cowell, whose brand of gloriously witty ranting drips with nostalgia for a bygone Australia where things were allowed to be a bit shit and could still be embraced by mainstream culture.

It will have you hungering, if not for a Chiko roll or a cup of International Roast, then at least for the possibility of them.

Sharp satirical songs from ageing rockers include: boppy tributes to no longer popular Google search words and a shambolic finale strewn with half-used dunny rolls.

It’s a brilliant and snarky show, perfect for anyone who’s sick of the trendy and forgettable side of 21st-century life.
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See article in its original context here by Eliza Goetze for The Vine.

Many great films have been made into musicals over the years.

The Room is not one of them.

In other words, it’s by no means a great film. In fact, it’s almost universally acknowledged as one of the worst movies ever (at odds with the claim at the end of the trailer that it’s the best); “the Citizen Kane of shit movies”.

But it’s this – the appalling acting, the cliché and often nonsensical lines (“YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!” “Oh hi Mark”), the arduous sex scenes and the ridiculous plot – that unites an inexplicably huge cult of fans, who might be excited to know that one obsessive enthusiast, Sydney’s Matt Downey, has translated Tommy Wisseau’s staggeringly awkward masterpiece into musical theatre.

“It’s definitely a dessert of intrigue,” he says of the film, dryly. “You can’t stop at just one view.”

Indeed, he’s seen it more than forty times now. “There’s a new little ‘easter egg’, as they say in video games – a new little treat every time I watch it.”

With a day job as a stage builder in Sydney, Downey works behind the scenes in theatre, but it’s his first foray into writing a production himself – “and, judging by ticket sales, the last,” he deadpans, a self-described “master of self-deprecation and a great fatalist”. “I had no interest in musical theatre, but I’m a great piss taker.”

The very idea of musical theatre is incredibly odd and “kind of perverse” to Downey. Many people wish that life was a musical, I offer.

He thinks it would be “a horrible existence. “I don’t think we’d all be singing joyfully about sunshine and skipping…people would be singing Get The Fuck Off The Road, Get Out Of My Way, Hurry Up, Hurry Up!”

He saw the creation of musical theatre parody as a challenge, and with some time on his hands and no small encouragement from his wife, Katie Jane (who plays alongside him in their band, Death Mattel), his idea grew from a one man show into a more involved production that’s been a couple of years in the making, on and off.

While Downey wrote the script, The Roomsical stars Jeremy Smith, Amanda Porter, Emily Faye, Anthony Ousback and Dave Rennick (of indie band Dappled Cities), and Downey describes director Ben Thatcher as “the filthy genius who held this all together”.
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WHEN best friends Andrew and John find themselves washed up on a make-believe desert island, tensions run high, emotions fray and friendships are tested as they work out how to survive.

This hour-long show is well-prepared and the storyline flows consistently.

It is camp, the acting is overdramatic and there is no downtime in this high-energy cabaret.

It is easy watching, and I found myself smiling throughout at the overdose of cheesy puns and word play.

They clearly love their craft and enjoy interacting with the audience, much to its delight on the night.

They boys have fabulous voices – backed up by a talented pianist – and have cleverly rewritten popular songs that navigate the narrative.

They keep the audience on its toes by quickly switching between characters that include singing beach balls, vindictive coconuts and Jamaican speaking crabs.

Pre-recorded video scenes that are peppered throughout help deepen the plot and give the boys a further chance to showcase their acting and singing abilities.
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