Physical comedy in theatre dates back to the 16th century and not much has changed since then. The main point is to get laughs from slapstick, clowning and mime. We might think of Charlie Chaplin, Benny Hill or Laurel & Hardy as being noted exponents of this art in the 20th century and theatre audiences today will still snigger at an actor who pulls a funny face or executes a pratfall. Who can’t laugh when they see a clown get a face full of cream pie? Nothing too demanding there then you might say… well actually there is. It’s remarkably difficult to synchronise the vital components of good physical theatre into a perfect combination that produces belly laughs even though the audience knows exactly what is coming. The delicate art of creating tension and the subtle skills of comic timing are fiendishly difficult to master and this audience is given a good demonstration of that; the show veers wildly from the successful jesting to the ineffective prank and back again.
Frenchman Laurent Mallet and Australian Damien Warren-Smith are part of the physical comedy group called A Plague of Idiots. The came together while studying at École Philippe Gaulier in 2013 and have produced sell out shows in Edinburgh, Australia and also here at the Wardrobe Theatre earlier in 2016. I can see why they are popular and admittedly this was an Edinburgh preview show but tonight’s performance was patchy and strained. Both actors have a talent for comic interaction; there were classic comedy duo moments and their improvisations with the audience were skilful and smart. But too much of this show relied on overly repetitive gags and there were some cringingly bad moments. Most of all there just weren’t enough laughs.
The two performers take classic roles at times. Mallet is the bungling, over-weight buffoon who takes three minutes to draw his bow across the violin and Warren-Smith plays the circus strong-man type when he has his shirt ripped from his back and then adroitly catches dozens of grapes in his mouth. Thrown one after the other, I should add; first by his partner and then by the spectators. He can also sing quite well, it has to be said, and this is something that could be expanded in a future show.
I had a feeling that quite a few of the sparse Sunday night audience were friends or associates of the performers and they gave appreciative claps and whoops at the end of this short event but overall the material needs a lot of development. The two actors work well together on the bare stage with just a few key props and there are genuinely inventive and humorous elements in this preview show, which I hope they can develop into something more profoundly funny and entertaining. ★★★☆☆ Adrian Mantle 27th June 2016
