The Barbeque

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 3, 2004

Bill Perrett

The Barbeque

WHERE: La Mama, 205 Faraday St, Carlton Tel: 9347 6142 WHEN: To Oct 10 TICKETS: $15/$11 **

The lasting impression left by The Barbeque is of an over-length student review piece, so gleefully proud of its own naughtiness that it forgot to have a point. A pity; it has a very good cast, and there is the glimmer of a good idea hidden somewhere in a pudding of silliness and self-indulgence.

A guest, Freddy (Simon King), turns up to a barbecue hosted by a borderline psychotic (Stephen Clements) and his boss (Clare Danaher).

They are joined by a confederate of the hosts, Jason (Fiona Macleod).

From early on it is clear that Freddy is in for a tough time. We're never sure why, and nobody on stage seems to have been cleared to tell us. There is a great deal of suit exchanging, pointless joke telling, head bagging and intermittent talk of scallops. Sounds funny? Well, add in a singing giraffe penis, and it still isn't. The problem is that all the bits and pieces of comic business and enigmatic dadaism simply fail to cohere into anything intelligible or even amusing. The ending has Freddy asleep in bed with the boss, with the suggestion that maybe the whole thing has been a nasty dream. It's hard to decide, and probably not worth the effort.