MAGGOT

BATS Theatre, Studio, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington

22/03/2018 - 24/03/2018

Basement Theatre Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland

07/11/2017 - 11/11/2017

NZ Fringe Festival 2018 [reviewing supported by WCC]

Production Details



AWARD WINNING CLOWN TRIO HIT AUCKLAND AHEAD OF ADELAIDE FRINGE  

Winners of New Zealand Fringe 2017’s Adelaide Tour Ready Award Scungebags are returning to Auckland to perform their award-winning show MAGGOT. 

MAGGOT has been described as “absolutely disgusting… not my cup of tea” by Angela’s uncle and conversely by Fiona McNamara as “a bizarre mishmash of pop, clown, postfeminism and 90s girl band.”

After training with John Bolton in 2015 The Scungebags: Angela Fouhy, Freya Boyle, and Elle Wootton formed The Baby Girls along with Australian clown Kimberley Twiner. 

“We founded the group solely on our collective delight in making funny voices and silly characters, and our inability to stop speaking in accents when with one another. The show was a bit of an experiment, we were totally ready to fail.” Elle Wootton

Scungebags debuted their first comedy show Finger in the Fringe Pie as the troupe The Baby Girls in the Melbourne Fringe 2015 and have since gone on to create other work together, including Shabbat Shalom And Thank You For Coming by Boyle’s company PositiveDeviance. 

Combining their talents, unique comedic flavours, and training from renowned clowning masters John Bolton and Philippe Gaulier, Fouhy, Boyle and Wootton connect intensely with audiences and transport them on a surreal, silly and joyous journey. 

“[The Scungebags] work hard to keep us entertained and clearly delight the whole room with their playful clowning; we’re all in stitches.” The Pantograph Punch

MAGGOT will play at The Basement Theatre Studio
3 – 11 November 2017
6.30pm
No show Sunday / Monday.
Tickets: $15 – $20
Bookings: www.basementtheatre.co.nz or phone iTicket 09 361 1000
BOOK NOW.

It promises to disgust, confuse, intrigue and entertain you.  

NZ Fringe 2018

Award-winning sketch comedy show Maggot is back for three nights only, fresh from a season at Adelaide Fringe, and a run at the Basement theatre in Auckland. Come and see the rabbit who can’t reach his carrot, the friendliest cowboys, and pop-sensation The Baby Girls who charmed audiences last year. Maggot is a wild ride of anarchic, ridiculous, highly absurd, and extremely funny sketch comedy.

Last New Zealand Fringe Maggot was awarded the Adelaide Tour Ready Award and nominated for most promising emerging company. The show sold out on closing night.

Maggot is brought to you by Elle Wootton, Freya Finch, and Angela Fouhy, all who have been trained as proper performance people, and directed by Melbourne-based idiot and clown teacher, Kimberly Twiner.

“a bizarre mishmash of pop, clown, postfeminism and 90s girl band, and it’s had me laughing for days…. The Baby Girls work hard to keep us entertained and clearly delight the whole room with their playful clowning; we’re all in stitches” – The Pantograph Punch

Elle, Freya, Angela, and Kimberley enjoy having sleepovers and pretending places are haunted when they actually aren’t so no one gets any sleep.

BATS Theatre – The Studio, 1 Kent Tce, Te Aro, Wellington
Thursday 22 – 24 March 2018
9:30pm
Concession $15 | Fringe Addict $14 | General Admission $20

ACCESSIBILITY:
If you need support with access, audio, visual needs, or with reserving an easy access seat in the theatre we encourage you to contact BATS Theatre prior to your visit and discuss your individual needs with their Front of House staff.
   The Studio is located on the top floor of the building and takes some time to reach using the stairclimber. Due to the fact that BATS Theatre have multiple shows per night, and the extended time required to reach The Studio, BATS Theatre will need to work closely with you to arrange a suitable arrival time so they can ensure they can make the process as smooth as possible.


Crew:
Technician: Anna Bennington
Lighting Design: Amanda Tito
Photos: Andi Crown


Theatre , Clown ,


1 hr

Bursting with life, effort, risk and reward

Review by Barnaby Olson 23rd Mar 2018

I’ve been aware of Maggot as a show for a while now but upon taking my seat I’m conscious of the fact that I have very few expectations regarding what I’m about to see. A common review is that it is “hard to characterise”. The set gives nothing away – a draped black cloth constitutes a makeshift offstage area at the back of the BATS Studio, and that’s it. Before I can dwell on it too long, the lights dim, then flash, three performers emerge and, just like that, Maggot begins.

The premise is simple and silly: The Baby Girls are a pop group who are moving away from pop and towards art. Exposition done; easy enough. What that movement looks like, we discover, is a whole series of vignettes and skits that are as unpredictable as they are thrilling. These are all created with a production value that is almost non-existent, which is fine as it matches the tone perfectly.

More than most shows, it feels very risky to give even the smallest bit of this one away, so I’ll simply say that what you are in for includes celebrity, traditional Irish instruments, some genuinely impressive spelling, some West-End-musical magic, and a whole lot of pride. I don’t get everything – and indeed, the show rollicks along at such a clip that I’m not sure if anyone could – but the hit rate is consistently high, and every new piece of the puzzle is clearly landing for a large, rotating majority of the audience. Most importantly, the bits that do go off do so in a big way.

As an ensemble, Angela Fouhy, Elle Wooton and Freya Boyle are, to a T, fantastic. There is an unmistakable delicacy and skill to what they are doing, and they seem to take great pains to hold their audience firmly within the chaos that they are masterminding onstage. The clowning is straight out of the top drawer – on several occasions we are treated to scenes that grow in length and significance as the performers become aware of our pleasure. John Bolton and Philippe Gaulier are clearly massively influential for this group, and at times you can almost feel the old Frenchman wheezing away in the background.

Fouhy is worthy of particular praise, as she seems to me to be the metronome around which the whole thing exists. Her ability to manipulate the timing and tone of the work to the whims of her audience is as impressive as it is rare, and she doesn’t miss a beat. The whole thing smacks of very solid direction on the part of Kimberely Twiner, with the movement, timing and ability to know when to play with us – and when to move along – clearly very practised and slick.

This is one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a theatre in a while. Maggot is mad, it’s a perfect Fringe show, and it’s bursting with life, effort, risk and reward. It’s not well-made fluff, either – on several occasions I find myself busy giggling away, only to be struck by some very gentle underlying politics at work or a need to pause for thought.

Speaking to audience members outside after the show, it’s clear that the experience is at least partially fuelled by the satisfaction of seeing these three women able to play in the way they do onstage – a privilege that has clearly been the domain of men for decades – without that needing to be overt in the work at all. It’s a sort of ‘political-because-it’s-not-political’-type situation, and the opening night audience demonstrably revels in it.

Maggot’s lifespan and list of accolades is impressive, and it is easy to see why. My prevailing thought in leaving the theatre is that somebody should very quickly give some money to these four young women, to see what they could achieve with a significantly expanded tool-kit. I wouldn’t bet against it being mental, courageous, and brilliant. 

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Lice Girls

Review by Nathan Joe 09th Nov 2017

Appropriately named The Scungebags, the clowning trio of Angela Fouhy, Freya Finch, and Elle Wootton have created a wonderfully weird piece of theatre. Framed as a boundary-pushing sketch show created by a British pop trio, The Baby Girls, Maggot is immediately odd and resists easy categorisation. Performing distinct archetypes (deadpan, sexy, enthusiastic) with more than a few shades of the Spice Girls, the show employs their innate idiosyncrasies to perfect use, from vocal inflections to exaggerated gaits.

These archetypes aren’t deconstructed so much as put to over-the-top use, pushing clichés into strange and unexpected areas through a combination of dance and clown. But the show’s most subversive moments play on our expectations of narrative and clichés. [More

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Absurd antics patently brilliant

Review by Nik Smythe 09th Nov 2017

The wooden stage is bare, with three black walls. Emerging from the rear curtain dressed in crazy shades and shiny trenchcoats, Freya Finch, Elle Wooton and Angela Fouhy have a clownesque Ab Fab air about them as they drip petulance, rage and unapproachable cool. Turns out this is international pop sensation The Baby Girls, respectively Andrea, Lily and Katy (if I heard right), here to shake off their vapid stereotypes by expanding into more artful ventures. 

From this starting point we’re drawn into a classic anything-can-happen-and-more-or-less-does array of bizarre, character-driven sketches on a spectrum ranging from bent to thoroughly twisted, all sprouted from the intriguingly comical minds of the performers, with direction by Kimberley Twiner. 

Employing an eclectic assortment of characters from prancing pixie folk to Scottish pre-schoolers, accessorised with requisitely silly costumes and props, this trio’s commitment to the craft of esoteric non-sequitur humour is palpable. In the wake of their dedicated randomness, the question of how – let alone why on earth – they chose the title Maggot is rendered effectively moot. 

For people who enjoy this sort of bonkers old-school minimalist sketch nonsense, like me, the absurd antics this trio is patently brilliant. From interpretive dance and hyperactive clownery to an indulgent tear-jerker centred around a Southern American rat-fight, the lo-fi lame-o style belies their consummate performance skills in movement and vocals.  

Certain personae such as Tracey the exuberant cheerleader and the flamboyant magician Gorgonzola call upon the audience’s services for vocal participation and … other things. As awkward and out-there as these exchanges are, it’s a great time all round including if not especially for the appointed stooges. 

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