SO…
Indian Char Bagh Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton
03/03/2024 - 03/03/2024
Hamilton Arts Festival Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa 2024
Production Details
Written, Directed and Performed by David Woods and Jon Haynes
RIDICULUSMUS THEATRE COMPANY
Two long-lost brothers overcome their differences and come together while sorting through their late mother’s estate.
Conceived during lockdown via Zoom, So… began as a response to Brexit, then became a Covid response and finally, a lament on separation.
A joyfully chaotic exchange that somehow embraces everything wrong in the world, this show was written and performed by the directors and founders of Ridiculusmus, a 30-year artistic partnership of international acclaim.
“So… had the audience laughing, squirming and wanting more.” – Fringe Review
Please note that this show has been relocated to the INDIAN CHAR BAGH GARDEN (from Medici Court) due to the rain.
Sun 3 Mar 2024, 6:00pm–7:00pm
General Admission: $36.00 each
Concession: $30.00 each
All Ages
Theatre ,
Masterfully constructed and chock full of subtext
Review by Ross MacLeod 04th Mar 2024
Having been forced by dubious weather from the Medici Court to the Indian Char Bagh Garden, Actor/Writer/Director David Woods explains with a casual confidence, that the venue will bring some challenges. This is immediately accompanied by a passing helicopter. We are told we shall have to imagine certain sound, lighting and visual cues.
He needn’t have been concerned. He and fellow Actor/Writer/Director Jon Haynes deliver such a sharply focused, character driven story that the absence of peripherals only serves to heighten out immersion. If the helicopter returned, I didn’t notice.
In a series of brief vignettes, two brothers talk over Zoom. Each brother lives a very different life but also lives of many facets which creates a steady give and take of status and control.
The multi-dimensional character work is what makes the work truly beautiful even when at its most awkward moment. They love each other but they don’t always like each other, a relationship that extends to the unseen ailing mother.
They can be uneasy discussing ownership of a DVD but casually discuss embarrassing adolescent moments. There are resentments and disagreements but always a desire to maintain connection. Like many art creations of the Covid era, they explore isolation, physical and emotional.
Woods plays his character with active physical and facial animation while Haynes is reserved, almost repressed.
The wealthier brother references a jet setting, high culture life but his world feels every bit as small as his caregiver brother.
In the intimate prison of a computer screen, they both seem trapped, their mere existence at the whim of lagging connections and call interruptions.
There is a weight to the brothers’ world but also a lightness. The joy of explaining a TV show’s virtues. The bonding experience of critiquing awful food. The beauty in the grotesque. The affection for our loved ones even when they disappoint us.
So … is a masterfully constructed and performed two-header, pared down to its simplest elements and chock full of subtext.
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