Francis (Max Reubs Walsh) McPantyliner celebrates his 18th birthday at home with his ex-cage fighter step mum, ‘I bought a shotgun Melvin’ and some kid who’s only there for the ladies. This sitcom galaxy is held beautifully in place by three attractions: one boy wants friends, one friend wants women, one woman wants boy. Reubs gives a relaxed performance as this OCD, fragile kid who just wants some mates. Mummy cougar sharking on baby bad boy is taken to a level rather less restrained than in Mamma Mia’s ‘Does your Mother Know’, with Mandy (Michael Scott) eventually grabbing the pubescent boy’s hand, placing it upon her ample bosom and growling, “cop a feel,” at the gangster clad teenager, at least 20 years her junior.
Scott, the more muscular, manly male of the group is a feminine force of raw sexual magnetism on stage. A hairy thigh is always snuggling its way along the sofa towards the adolescent and refusing to be subservient to its master, a leopard print dress. Scott’s Northern accent lends itself beautifully to the frustrated female whose proliferation of BAH-STUD’s fire rage at the audience at her lot in life and repressed love for her dweeby stepson. Following not so yummy Mummy’s sucker punch, Said (Alex Harvey) eats carpet and she storms off upstairs with her hairy bum grinning at the audience as she goes.
Said (typical teenager) is confused. He wants sex, but not with Mummy. He’s read ‘The Seagull goes to the Beach’, but not Chekov. When asked what IT’s like with him and his gal, his response: MOIST. Harvey is natural, effortlessly cheeky, in fact, even when silent his lips do the acting for him (watch when you go and see it).
Suicidal Melvin (Matthew Dow) does less is more very well. His dry delivery of just a string of numbers; ‘9…9…9…9…9…9…9…9…9…9…9’ makes for a side-splitting utterance. But he was so amusing that he even made himself laugh. Corpsing is always funny though. I don’t know why it’s such a thespian cardinal sin. Actor makes audience laugh, audience makes actor laugh: a win-win situation.
I only saw the start, so in Week 3 I might be saying that the second half did indeed ‘shit all over the ambience’ but if the next part is as LOL as Fortuna Burke’s press preview I’ll be wetting my pants instead.
