The Gremlins is being promoted as one of the key events of the 2016 Anywhere Festival, and is based on a family of mischievous Gremlin characters who are responsible for things that mysteriously go wrong, as well as stealing whatever they might need to create mayhem.
In this piece of independent comic theatre, presented by visual arts company Bent Schematic, the Gremlins in entrepreneurial mode are attempting to fulfil their dream of flying by launching an extremely low budget airline. The audience become the passengers of this unlikely enterprise and are roped into all sorts of comic episodes by the manic cast of four actors, all of whom look as if they had just come off the set of Mad Max.
The tenor of the show was made clear from the introductory preamble and interaction with audience members sitting in the waiting area for the show to begin. Frenetic rushing in and out of the tent entrance announcing various aspects of what to expect and then making everyone line up in orderly fashion to enter the “Airlineas Hippopotamus” plane was faintly amusing and certainly very silly. Entering the marquee, with its delicious red t-shirted design as a front curtain, we smiled in good humour, knowing we had a part to play.
We were soon to be disappointed. Despite having been developed by and for the Woodford Festival and having just completed a season at the Adelaide Fringe, this work seemed under-developed and under-rehearsed, with a script that lacked content and was full of non-sequiturs. To work, comedy can’t just be a series of lacklustre jokes, most of which went on for far too long and were not that funny to start with. In particular the joke with the tape measure which included getting two unsuspecting audience members on stage to ‘fight’ with extended tapes was excruciating.
The four actors gave off enormous energy having to try too hard with poor material, one-dimensional comic-book characterisation and a woeful lack of direction from Alex Podger.
The Captain, Gustoff, played by Daniel Gorski, spent most of the time either shouting at his crew or sweet-talking the passengers. His mock-Russian/East European accent was puzzling and added nothing to the piece.
Kristian Santic as Gargaroy, the technician, spoke little but looked extraordinary and had some fun comic moments including a bizarre sequence juggling and catching potatoes on the ends of forks.
Caitlin Strongarm as Mofball with her Gremlin-speak that was marginally entertaining, if totally incomprehensible, really had to struggle to try and make the intercom and tape-measure jokes work. Most of the time she resorted to screaming and shouting giving us a character that was both irritating and unbelievable.
In contrast, the most successful section of the show was real and truthful. Accordion and guitar player, Tom Albert, as Pensil, speaking normally, sang a clever and witty number lamenting the value placed on the life of a musician. It had nothing to do with Gremlins but towards the end of the performance, it was welcome and beautifully done.
The show was staged in front of the old Skate Arena in Red Hill, which is soon sadly to be demolished. The entrance looked like an old-fashioned circus tent with a shipping container for the bar, a nice touch. The simple staging inside the tent with the flight deck centre stage worked well, as did the sound and lighting effects of the plane taking off.
All in all though, this was an evening that did not deliver and seemed to be more of a Theatre-in-Education work than a production for adults. The seven-year old boy sitting in the row behind had the time of his life and got heavily involved in the action. This is probably the audience that this show was made for.
1.5 stars out of 5
The Gremlins
Anywhere Theatre Festival
Presented by Bent Schematic
Director: Alex Podger
Producer: Jenna Koda
Sound Design: Josh Wilkinson
Cast: Daniel Gorski, Kristian Santic, Tom Albert and Caitlin Strongarm
Old Skate Arena, Red Hill
May 5-7, 12-14 and 19-21 at 7pm
