La Mama - Melbourne
International Comedy Festival 1998
Kindling Does for
Firewood, April 1, 1-19, 1998
Hoaxes and Jokeses: A
Language Sandwich by Rodney Marks April 3-19, 1998
Reviewed by Kate Herbert on or around April 2, 1998
No one could say that the Comedy Festival lacks variety: in
laugh value, style, content and quality. The two shows gestured at La Mama for
the festival epitomise this eclecticism.
Rodney Marks is a Sydney-based professional hoaxer similar
to Melbourne's Campbell McComas. He does the conference circuit,
practical-joking for corporate bucks. At one conference he sacked the whole
company leaving employees weeping and jobless. At Harvard, he played a new
Dean, who had no reaction to plans to decimate the rights of every minority
group but all hell broke loose when he threatened to merge the Business school
with another
In another hoax he was billed as a resident psychiatrist,
garnering plenty of wacko material until a distressed couple revealed a
grotesque murder in the family. Marks came clean with his true identity and
enlisted them as allies in the hoax. Phew!
Marks is a masterly
raconteur. He sits comfortably wearing a funny tie and braces, spinning yarns
about his series of failed arts management positions, his attempt to change his
life with more education and three degrees in Theatre Business and Government.
In his quiet laconic way, he creates a 'language sandwich',
testing the audience with word-teasers, latin references and convoluted
narratives.
The inspired element setting it apart from other yarnspinners,
is the totally random components which rely heavily on improvisation and the
audience 'owning' the show. He places a timer on stage. To break the pattern,
interrupt boredom, punctuate stories and distract us, we were given roles.
At regular intervals,
people were designated to throw a ball across the space or improvise a time
call. The audience choices become part of the show. One young man stood up,
tipped the clock on its face and, in an instant, we had subversive Post-Modernism.
Marks' show is mild, unpredictable and funny. The same
cannot be said for Kindling does for Firewood. Actors Anita Butler and Bruce
Edwards adapted this wordy script from Rodney King's 1995 Vogel award winning
novel.
The text converts slabs of prose into interminable onstage
narration. Smart dialogue works on occasion but the poor, one-note acting,
clunky design and non-direction of the piece makes it almost unbearable.
Without the layering, style or theatrical form to support them, King's rough
90's youthful characters become unsympathetic and his language almost
offensive.
This is an unfortunate addition to the La Mama Comfest
program. Better to simply read the book
KATE HERBERT
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