Edinburgh Fringe 2024
The Comedy Games With Coach Mon
Monique Warren
Genre: Children's Theatre, Clown, Comedy
Venue: theSpace @ Niddry Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This was a well structured, inventive piece of children’s entertainment that was immersive, interactive yet steadfastly inclusive. Coach Mon’s empathy with her young athletes is exemplary, and that’s what makes it such a success.
Review
Given that the Fringe backed onto the Paris Olympics this year, it’s surprising that the inbox hasn’t been flooded with requests to review sporting themed shows. Rhythmic swimming anyone? That could have been staged pretty much anywhere outdoors in another pelting Edinburgh “summer”.
Perhaps not. But Coach Mon, fresh on these shores from that big land down under, is stoked for her spectacular comedy sports extravaganza. “Comedy athletes to the arena please”, she intones. “Comedy athletes to the arena, PLEASE”, she repeats with a sense of urgency. And growing alarm. Hmmmm…. looks like they’ve all legged it, probably in search of a stale croissant at the Parisian bunfest that recently concluded. But how can you stage “The Comedy Games” without athletes?
Yep, you’ve got it. The solution is staring our Mon in the face. Literally. Eyes wide open, mouths agog, ready to roll. Cue an engaging, fully interactive, funny, forty five minutes of loosely organised chaos featuring anyone who wanted to get involved. Which ended up being pretty much everyone.
We started with a bit of eyebrow athletics, a bit of arm waving and some air high fiving, before rewarding our exertions with an athlete’s smoothie containing, it has to be said, a few quite unusual and daft ingredients, naturally enough suggested by the younger end of the audience. Then came the real interactive part with anyone who wanted to take part up on the stage, with “slow” running races and a number of other simple, movement based activities that kids will grasp in an instant.
That, in many ways is the secret of this show’s obvious success. Keep it simple, keep it short, let anyone who wants to take part do so and ensure that those who prefer to remain in their seats are respected and involved to the degree they want to be.
Coach Mon is clearly an expert in handling an audience, especially a young one, in a show that involves physical theatre, mime, clowning, singing, acting and, given that kids don’t so much willingly suspend their sense of disbelief as hurl it out the window, a lot of short form improv.
Ten minutes in and all I could see were pairs of eyes locked onto Mon’s every move, and the forest of hands that shot up every time she asked a question or for a volunteer showed they were hooked. And hooked they remained throughout. It also takes real empathy to deal with the inevitable “off piste” interjections whilst keeping the show on the road and our Mon has this in bucket loads.
She also deploys an extensive range of props to augment the audience experience and, without you really noticing, draws the children in to the point that the whole lot were on the stage at the end, taking part in the way they wanted to and rewarded at the end of the “games” with their very own medal. And the way that part of the show was delivered showed just how well attuned Mon is to her “athletes”.
Written and performed by Coach Mon (or Monique Warren to reveal her true identity), this was a well structured, inventive piece of children’s entertainment that was immersive, interactive yet steadfastly inclusive. Mon’s empathy with her young athletes is exemplary, and that’s what makes it such a success.
Each of these shows will be different, given that each child attending will engage and react to it in a different way. But if today is anything to go by, you’re in for a real treat. It’s aimed at the 4-9 year old range but accommodated ages either side of that with ease at the show I saw. Highly recommended.
