The Italian Comedy

Caught by the sudden closure of the trendy Meraki Arts Bar in Oxford Street, The Italian Comedy has now found a home in Redfern.

In an improvised theatre space, featuring the bare minimum props for a cut-price fashion shop in Venice, eight players go for it. Each with his/her own accented English, they prance and bicker in a plot that could have been hacked from a commedia dell’arte stock pile.

Written by Stephen Hopley and Alexander Gibbs, with many an unspoken hat-tip towards Spike Milligan, it concerns the owner of the shop, Placebo (Nicholas Richard), and his attempts at playing matchmaker for his policeman friend Folio (Logan McCarthur) and Folio’s girlfriend Cilia (Carla Field).

But, wouldn’t you know it, the match is complicated by aggressive Police Chief Memento (Brendan Layton), ever-hopeful woman friend Luna (Tess O’Sullivan) and Messia (Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou), the revolutionary woman who does a brilliant impersonation of a shopfloor dummy when the plot demands it. Uno (Rosie Meader) turns up as a swashbuckling man and has a worthwhile sword fight with Folio before the show is over.

There is much to-and-fro about who-has-what-and-why. Placebo is particularly in tune with what the audience wants and he urges continued participation.

A vital part of the set is the little bell that each character must ring as he/she passes before coming to rest on chairs at the side. It dings regularly.

All is forgiven at the end when the whole cast have a general knees-up and company dance. Here there is a genuine feeling of togetherness and joy, and the audience responds. More song-and-dance is recommended.

Frank Hatherley