list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL COMEDY
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LOUISE REAY: IT’S ONLY WORDS A skilled clowning set about language that sadly over-stretches its hour ●●●●● TOM PARRY: YELLOW T-SHIRT Curated chaos from the Pappy’s man in a show about fancy dress ●●●●●
ALFIE BROWN: – ISM An eventfully disruptive backdrop to politics, pro-life and Thomas the Tank Engine ●●●●●
Only 7% of communication is verbal, Louise Reay informs the audience (on placards). You’ll probably understand 93% of Reay’s show, then, since it’s performed entirely in Chinese ‘for people who don’t speak Chinese’. Reay is known for her skilled clown work and through frantic physicality and exaggerated expression, she gives everything a clear yet comical meaning, be it an extract from Romeo and Juliet or a seminal moment from Rocky.
Reay manages to drive home the message that you don’t need words to understand situations, no matter how absurd, such as dressing a fully- grown man up as a baby and offering to feed him with a mounted rubber breast. Talking to an English-speaking fella in Chinese and having him understand is interesting; having him nod along in a knitted baby bonnet is all the better.
Reay’s point is quickly proved, however, and
halfway through, the mimicked actions and surreal situations grow tired. If communication is key, she would do well to keep this act short, and let her clowning speak for itself. (Rebecca Monks) ■ Just the Tonic at The Community Project, 0330 220 1212, until 30 Aug (not 18), 4.15pm, £5 (or Pay What You Want).
Tom Parry, one third of acclaimed sketch group Pappy’s, presents his debut solo show in which he promises that he can prove the importance of fancy dress. Over the course of 60 minutes he does many things, ranging from the odd to the bewildering, but his fulfilment of this vow is the strangest. Alfie Brown really needs to focus. From the moment he takes the stage, he seems uncertain and on edge, gradually loosening up before delivering a delightful early gag about being pro-life. But as latecomers arrive he’s visibly irritated and it can be jarring to watch.
From the way he introduces the show to the When he’s on a roll, Brown has some cracking
regular injection of jokes and things to think on, the joy is in watching it unfold with no idea where it’s going next. As such, it’s difficult to describe the list of gags and skits without dispelling the magic. Appearing to be a shambolic fizz-bomb of barely corralled japery, the unbridled enthusiasm Parry presents belies a carefully constructed show with no hint of laziness. No lengths are too far to go in search of a laugh and no punchline is obvious from the set-up. Parry presides over a curated chaos, staging the appearance of anarchy through diligently applying the rules of comedy. In essence, it’s a sweaty man shouting at a room full of people to much merriment. To look for the wizard behind the curtain would be to miss the point. (Suzanne Black) ■ Just the Tonic at The Tron, 0330 220 1212, until 30 Aug (not 18), 6.20pm, £5 (or PWYW).
material. He’s very candid about his sex life, sometimes eliciting groans when he pushes his audience a little too far; but it’s politics that really brings out the passion. Brown delivers a wonderful diatribe against the far-right tyranny he believes is espoused by Thomas the Tank Engine. Towards the end, an audience member has to
leave as she’s feeling unwell. Unwisely, Brown delays her escape to check that she’s not having him on (she’s clearly not), and his rhythm’s shot yet again. The worst is yet to come: as he builds to a vehement crescendo, the door opens just at the point of him delivering his final line. It looks like he’s about to storm off. But to his credit, a sympathetic audience rallies to the cause and Brown just about turns it around. (Murray Robertson) ■ Assembly George Square Theatre, 623 3030, until 31 Aug, 7.20pm, £10–£11 (£9–£10).
NATASHA NOMAN: NOMAN’S LAND Employing a sardonic wit to a tale of tough life in Karachi ●●●●●
Natasha Noman’s one-woman play is a story of contrasts. This tale evocatively recreates her experience working as a journalist for The Friday Times in Karachi, having moved there from Manhattan. The paper’s open criticism of the Taliban led to death threats and raids, and after one such event, in an attempt to reinstate some normalcy in her life, she agrees to a Tinder date: as a lesbian in Karachi, she was dealing with a dearth of action. The political is inextricable from the personal in this captivating
tale as Noman explores the illicit underground pleasures of lesbian Tinder, speakeasys and illegal Scotch while travelling to work a different route each day to foil kidnappers, in an armoured car accompanied by a guard with a Kalashnikov resting between his knees. Meanwhile, in the office, her male colleagues struggle to respond to her as a professional, intellectual woman. Noman employs her sardonic, dry wit to good effect; the differences between two cultures are nicely illustrated by a description of the bus services in Manhattan where the driver won’t let any more people on if it’s full, whereas in Karachi they simply make do with sitting in someone’s lap or on the roof. But Noman delves deeper too, going on to make the more serious and pertinent point of how lives are valued differently by the west. She compares the difference in news coverage of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists’ deaths and the 2000 massacred in Nigeria by Boko Haram on the same day and how the western media obsessed over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann whereas, ‘it’s news in Pakistan if someone you know doesn’t get kidnapped’. An enjoyable and fascinating show. (Marissa Burgess) ■ Gilded Balloon, 622 6552, until 15 Aug, 7.45pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).
13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 43