Review-Journey to Atlantis-Mager&Smythe/DEER Theatre
12-10-12
You may not be much interested in looking for the magical mythical city of Atlantis – but if you are looking for a mythically magical theatre experience, then you should definitely go ‘In Search Of [This] Atlantis' to discover it.
Mager & Smythe hail from Australia and are proud enough of their country to rip it to shreds – and a few other countries too – and then rip your own heart to shreds with a ballad about never seeing Australia again – before ripping into a raucously rousing finale as they regain something approaching (conventional theatre) land. But what gets mostly ripped to shreds along the way are the audience’s inhibitions about responding to a beautifully worked, cunningly energized and immensely entertaining comedy-cum-road-movie musical.
Think The Flight of the Conchords live on stage, the two folk parodists each playing (in turn) all other roles – and pumping out some rocking good parody songs (for guitar and mandolin, mostly) for good measure – on an epic adventure in search of underwater ubermensch – and you have half the picture of what Mager & Smythe conjure up in this wild and whacky race round the sonic shores of out of the way places explored by slightly out of their depth non-archaeologists.
The humour is adult but delivered with such seemingly insouciant innocence that you wonder if it wouldn’t work well for kids too. (So long as you don’t mind all the explaining you’d have to do afterwards). But that may be simple transference on my part, with the show staged at the DEER theatre, the home of Dramatic English, known for its work in children’s theatre.
There’s something specially suitable about the DEER theatre as this production’s Hong Kong venue. Just to find it (unmarked, down a side street 5 minutes walk from Jordan MTR, pushing past street market stalls through a throng of Kowloon night life) is like looking for Atlantis in itself. And then the space itself, a small black box with minimal lighting and an intimacy that these two exploit to the max.
Catch it if you can – and if you can’t, kick yourself, because the next time you have the chance, you may be paying a whole lot more for the privilege. If Mager & Smythe make it as the next comedy folk parody duo from Down Under, they could make it very big indeed.
In Search of Atlantis is playing at the DEER Studio in Jordan through Saturday, October 20th at 8pm. Donations Only.
Comments
Matt
Great job Tim!!!'
12 October 2012mike mager
donations only? can i have a 6 pack of donations in your dreams but well done
16 October 2012