Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Little Squirt
Darby James and Quiet Riot
Genre: Musical Theatre
Venue: Summerhall : Anatomy Theatre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Australian musical comedian Darby James’s cabaret musical story about his journey through the sperm donation process, with original songs.
Review
Darby James takes us on a hugely entertaining musical romp to tell us of his journey to becoming a sperm donor. In between the different steps of the story, he agonises about the practicalities, ethics and possible consequences, for him and any children that result, of his sperm actually ending up co-creating any offspring.
The actual story is not complex or surprising; it’s the logical step by step process of applying to become a sperm donor and the administrative and medical checks and procedures that follow. He sees a Facebook ad, answers it, is interviewed and screened, verbally and physically (blood, DNA and sperm quality) and finally donates multiple times. There are two aspects that make this logical sequence of events so entertaining. Firstly, Darby Jones plays (we assume himself) a gay man who is donating, most likely, to straight couples to help them have children. A lovely irony. Secondly, the creators of this charming show have chosen the perfect form for it; musical theatre. They call it cabaret but it is a one man musical, and an impressive performance by Jones to fill an hour with songs, rhyming couplets and repartee than never drops in energy or quality and never loses our interest or attention. No small achievement!
Musical theatre is the ideal vehicle to tell this story because, it is a form designed to stop the story and let characters reflect and emote about their thoughts and feelings of what has, is or is about to happen. So at each step of the process, we get the consequent musical number of how Darby reacts to it ; see the Facebook ad – should I apply? ; when he gives his first sperm donation – I feel vulnerable, and so on. A perfect marriage of theatrical form and story-with-many-reflective-moments.
The musical numbers are all effective and appropriate and well performed, but they are all very similar and all at the same pace, tone and style with sound-a-like backing tracks. For example, I’d have loved a proper accordion or concertina backing for the sea shanty, but it lost the feel of a shanty with the same pop-style backing. Similarly, the emotions and energy with which the majority of the story is delivered stays on one level too (impish puzzlement and agonising). Physically there is little variety too, Darby remains centre stage and gesticulating almost throughout. I would have welcomed the director crafting a much more imaginative, wider variety of pace, tone, movement, emotion, tempo, register and style in the many different elements. This sameness lost us a lot of the opportunity to experience the emotional roller coaster that Darby must have been on. We got it in words, not in feelings or theatrical variety. There was just one moment, near the end, when Darby sat down, head in hands and the pace slowed, and the emotion changed; we needed lots more of that variety.
As entertaining and quirky as the premise and the show is, it left me feeling it was a rather squeaky clean, sanitised, sweet version of the sperm donation story that will play very well to middle class audiences who are easily shocked. The character of Darby Jones seems like a very nice, well-scrubbed, middle class young man who knows how to be polite when he visits his friends’ parents. He just happens to be gay, but he’s a gay who won’t frighten the horses. There is nothing to shock most audiences here. It is mild titillation and pretty innocent fun; even though it is about sperm donation. This is not a criticism. That is where they have pitched the level and style of storytelling and it is a very shrewd choice. It means the show can tour internationally to middle class audiences (after all, they are the ones who buy theatre tickets) especially those who can handle some mild titillation on a bit of a saucy subject, without getting embarrassed or offended. Personally I’d prefer more grit and raunch in a sperm story but this show more than delivers an entertaining, accomplished hour of musical theatre on a very original subject.
