06 April 2010

Review: Dos or Duo

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Dos or Duo
Stuart Christie and Kane Petersen
6 April 2010
Gasworks


The Comedy Festival is happening all over our wonderful city, so leave the metro-hub and see what's happening a few tram stops away. First stop is the Gasworks Arts Park for the the uber-delightful and super-gorgeous Dos or Duo.

Dos or Duo won hearts at the Melbourne Fringe, was nominated for awards at the Adelaide Fringe and delights everyone who sees it.  There's nothing quite like sitting in an audience who are all loving what they are watching.

Circus and theatre can be the best and the worst of bedfellows.  Luckily Stuart Christie and Kane Petersen had sage advice that recommended a beginning/middle/end structure, never looking beyond the fourth wall and a reason to jump.  It's ironic and kooky and full of jokes for theatre nerds, circus freaks and anyone who loves pirates.

Contemporary theatrey circus often favours nude bits and grown-up jokes, but Dos and Duo is one that kids and the easily offended can happily come to. There's one joke with an M rating, but innocent viewers won't be laughing at the same thing that the depraved ones are.

Non-stop laughs aside, this show has ridiculously fit blokes doing the physically impossible. Christie and Kane's rope aerials combine gracious and slow with heart-jumping drops and swashbuckling swinging, which are as eye-popping as their tumbling and acrobalance.

To bring us their bloody amazing aerial work, they need to perform in a theatre (there's no poking this show into a closet at the Town Hall), so you have to go to Gasworks to see them. There's plenty of parking, the bar is open and public transport leaves from outside the Town Hall (tram 1 from Swanston St to stop 31). There's no excuse not to go.

These two are too good to miss.

This review appears on AussieThearte.com.