Adelaide Fringe 2011

The Ridiculous Flies

Accidental Productions

Genre: Comedy

Venue:

City Soul - 13 Hutt St Adelaide

Festival: Adelaide Fringe

Low Down

Review

Rebecca Calandro, Jesse Butler, Todd Gray, Nic Krieg and Kyle Kaczmarczyk change sets and characters as if they were in a race, not missing a beat and keeping most of the audience entertained.

Drawing on themes covering US sports commentators, confusing tuna labels, telemarketing, gay America media personalities, Aboriginal talk shows and more – the cast come close to bordering on the inappropriate line at times, while at others leave you either laughing out loud or wondering what the point was.

A few scenes slowed the cast down for example a sketch with the kite, and another concerning a wheelchair, and the opening scene was too long giving the gag away half way through the sketch. The scenes that worked well were those that were quick, short and sharp – often a one liner erupted the audience into laughter. The finale had strong moments but again once the gag was revealed just dragged on.

An ensemble piece, written by the whole cast, they deserve praise for giving the serious world of comedy a good crack. It would be good to see the cast move from emulating the likes of Jim Carrey and take on the more difficult role of developing their own comic styling. A few plays on personalities, straight man and buffoonery is always good, but to give the piece more shape and depth, the cast perhaps needs to expand into other forms of slapstick such as Commedia dell’Arte and clown to grasp these elements better and stretch the show comically.

Overall, if you’re looking for a quick laugh, The Ridiculous Flies do deliver! Set in the newly found City Soul on Hutt st – the venue is small but the cast do well to work with what they’ve got proving it’s not the space that counts, it’s the way you use it!

Published March 1, 2011 by Corinna Di Niro