finding the river
finding the river
Finding the River
10 October 1999
.. performances are inventive, imaginative and energetic ...There is a real sense of fun and enthusiasm about the piece....just as the wacky, often goofy comedy never goes over the top.
The Sunday Age, reviewed by Steven Carroll - FULL REVIEW BELOW
FINDING THE RIVER from Pandemonium Ensemble is a short whimsical piece in the style of Grimm's tales that combines mythological pastiche with the broad brush strokes of comic book and slapstick comedy.
Two sisters (Alicia Easteal and Aurora Kurth} are sent to the source of a river in order to save it. The river, it seems, has been taken over by a greedy god and no longer runs freely. On the way they encounter giants, tricksters, and of course, enter a dark forest. Meanwhile, two of the king's bungling henchmen are in pursuit of them.
Easteal and Kurth, who are graduates of the John Bolton theatre school, play all characters. Their performances are inventive, imaginative and energetic ‑ the giant is especially well done. There is a real sense of fun and enthusiasm about the piece, and the environmental parable about freeing the river is never overdone, just as the wacky, often goofy comedy never goes over the top. Enjoyable theatre.
Beautiful Freaks
Call me a sourpuss, but I’ve never made friends with physical comedy. I’ve always preferred the laughs to come from what the actors’ mouths can spit out, rather than what shapes they can pull. Finding the River is a full-blown physical comedy, and when Alicia Easteal and Aurora Kurth first shuffled and skipped on stage I thought, “here we go”.
As usual, preconceptions turned to shit, and I laughed myself through a fabulous fairy tale, supposedly in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm. But this delightful celebration of childish absurdity triggers memories from a host of non-sensical stories, which were once the young pillars of imagination I learnt to read with. Bad jelly the witch hit me like a shot. The far away tree, lions, witches and wardrobes were in my head for the first time in god knows how long. For those more cinematically inclined, The Princess Bride and Labyrinth come to mind.
Easteal and Kurth are perfect in their creations of two daring sisters on a treacherous quest, and two ‘evil’ tricksters who can’t help but make a mess. Along the way, on their journey to the mythical pinnacles, there are sinister deserts, forbidden forests and a bunch of woeful foes.
What is their quest? To turn the river tap on, and bring water back to the land, which has been barren since a mean (and rather bossy) god/witch/bad dude ran it dry, complete non-sense. But hey, the kids went to rescue Lucy the cow from Bad Jelly so they could have milk on their eggs again, so who’s complaining?
“You’re not going weird on me, are you?” Simon the sneaky Hench boy says, disturbed by his new sidekick. Irony of course, as an ounce of logic, would have been an ounce too much.
The transitions between characters are creative and clean, while the ‘weird forest’ piss-take is hilarious. Finding the River demonstrates unlimited energy and imagination just like a child, and made me wonder for a moment why I now fill my head with stories of cynical junkies and sociopaths.
From The Wellington City Voice, March 23rd 2000, reviewed by Matthew Dallas.