Edinburgh Fringe 2024
L’Addition – Here & Now Showcase
Bert and Nasi
Genre: Contemporary, Devised, Theatre
Venue: Summerhall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Imaginative and creative. The banter is delicious. The inspired performance is all about the way they speak, react physically and play. They are multidimensional characters steeped in a totally original absurdist scenario, sublimely silly with integrity, and they know where they are leading us!
Review
A table is set in the restaurant with an empty wine glass on a white linen table cloth. Upstage are two chairs, a service station with wine, and other accoutrements. The duo of Bert and Nasi introduce themselves and do an informative preamble. They both wear crisp white shirts and black trousers.
Their banter is witty and fun, from a seemingly self-deprecating waiter and a mild mannered customer, or is it a customer and a waiter? Their verbal repartee describing what is to happen is hilarious, they get a lot out of so little! One tells us what we’ll see, and shows us with a gesture. They each play the moments well, such as when they both point upstage right and they look at us before the small bit of information is given verbally. This is repeated with the arms pointing to the left! They also do a play-by-play of important points. We are told after a while – it’s not complicated! This is seriously naïve and is surely an adventure!
Bert and Nasi are both at times still and silent, when their eyes slide sideways towards the audience to show disagreement. Sometimes Nasi is more persistent, and Bert is more placating – but not for long – and when they both agree, they run with the idea or new direction, whatever happens,
The waiter, is pouring wine into an elegant glass while the customer sits and watches, and sophisticated background music gives an air of a first class restaurant. There is a an atmosphere of expectancy – yet is it all in our mind? Is this an illusion? Suddenly they are in distress, maybe they are perfectionists this waiter and this customer? The third time around and the scene builds, it’s the same scene and they go off piste! What follows is a scene with similar actions and dialogue but with variations each time. At one point they realise that they’re over reacting, so they tell us not to panic! This is absurdist theatre at its best and the simple scene has ballooned into something else!
They create more absurdity by their economic use of gestures and props – and the short dialogue and things become clear for a while. In fact amongst the absurdity there is so much clarity about what is happening! Now and again Bert and Nasi come out of the scene to address the audience directly before a transition.
Directed by Forced Entertainment’s artistic director Tim Etchells and created with performance duo Bert and Nasi, L’Addition is set around a simple scenario that has been explored in every way to produce this unique and absurdist take on a scene in a restaurant that opens up opportunities for different emotions, meanings and some may say deeper exploration of clashes of humanity or world events.
Bert and Nasi are comedic when they look at the audience to share heightened reactions and sometimes very subtle reactions, verbal or nonverbal. They use all the space really well as they play and you can tell that they have played a lot when developing this show. They are not afraid to go to extremes in every situation in every moment, which may be why this piece is so well-crafted and builds so well. It’s a tour de force performance from Bert and Nasi.
They are modern day clowns, sophisticated absurdists in this devised show that is superbly performed. The story is based on simplicity of concept that is pulled apart with and served up with detail. Whether blaming each other, they dig deeper and find new levels of the story and their rapport. This takes nerve and is very well appreciated by the audience. Just when you think you have figured it out, they find motivation and another dimension, which generates new ideas for the scenes and extensions of thought.
Imaginative and creative. The banter is delicious. The inspired performance is all about the way they speak, react physically and play. They are multidimensional characters steeped in a totally original scenario, sublimely silly with integrity, and they know where they are leading us! With all the absurdity and the quirky charm of this duo, the seventy minutes seems a tad bit long and some very loud reactions from Nasi might benefit from some nuance in volume.
This is an intriguing exploration of two characters who work together and cajole each other in L’Addition, exceptionally well performed by Bert and Nasi.
