Effie in Love me Tinder

Well known for her inappropriate comedy and habit of using malapropisms, Effie, played by Mary Coustas is back at the Adelaide Fringe. She became a household name throughout the 1990s for the Wogs out of work stage show and TV series Acropolis Now. Having only recently been in TV commercials Coustas has reprised this character in a new show Effie in Love me Tinder.

The Spiegeltent was a full house on the night I attended and expectations were high. As the Tinder sign appeared on the screen and hundreds of Tinder profiles flashed up excitement grew at the prospect of a new take on her character, with time having passed by.

However, instead of being greeted by the second-generation Greek girl with the huge hair, we are met with her ‘Uncle Vasili’ (played by Coustas) who regaled us with detailed stories of his dating prowess and the power of his ‘Mr Zhuzh’. Whilst one never expects this type of show to be PC, the jokes about his member were tedious. Thankfully he left the stage and the screen this time lit up again with footage from the movie Cinderella- subtitled by Effie and Vasili. Again- underwhelming.

Eventually Effie graces the stage and greets us with her classic “Hello Good Thanks”. The show is about how, after being a ‘virgin’ until 40, she finally meets Mr Right. Commenting with lines like “Holding onto my hymen took a lot of willpower” and “he said the three words every girl wants to hear- I’m a surgeon”, the show is lightly entertaining but really has little substance. Nearly 15 minutes is spent chatting with audience members and making cracks about their relationships.

For those that are Effie purists, I suppose seeing her ‘back’ was exciting and if you like the lame non-PC jokes it would have been a great night, but for this reviewer the show really didn’t cause a great deal of laughter. Aside from the initial references to Tinder and a mention of Effie using it to have a dalliance, the show really wasn’t that connected to the dating app and there wasn’t enough material to sustain a one- hour show.

Shelley Hampton

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