End Of

Ash Flanders began theatrical life in a Melbourne carpark producing fabulously funny queer satires with Declan Greene, now AD of Sydney’s Griffin Theatre. Sisters Grimm, as they were called, is a hard act to follow.

Here the agile Flanders is in pants playing a (perhaps) theatricalised version of himself as he remembers the death of his mother and other relatives.  We first see him though in his day job transcribing police interviews – he argues it’s a good, real-life way for desperate artists to meet new characters and find new storylines.

Flanders’ commanding yet modulated voice is part of his sophisticated skill and relish as a stand-up comedian. And that’s just as well since, as well as themes of death and artistic angst, his monologue hurtles down many other tracks, one a very long track through a bad acid trip, another through the bowels of a knackery. 

He’s best when focused on his acerbic, rough-talking mother Heather whose endless catchphrase was ‘End of’.  Ash says he got his name only because his chain-smoking Mum was reaching for an ashtray at the time. 

This well-practiced show from Melbourne is well punctuated by director Stephen Nicolazzo and Tom Backhaus’ sound design.  And Nathan Burmeister’s simple set does the job - a dull office space but framed by the stage curtains of a theatrical escape. 

Flanders’ lucky challenge as an flamboyant comic is that he often clashes with his empathic self, when he’s telling presumably real moments meant to be genuinely tender, even tearful.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Brett Boardman