GODS, FATE AND A LIBRARIAN (fringe comedy, written by and featuring Erica Glyn-Jones and Haidee Crowe, Vicky’s until Saturday):
WHEN it comes to comedy there’s probably nothing as annoying as actors who are finding themselves funny when their audience isn’t.
This is the big problem with Gods, Fate and a Librarian, a show which offers a lot but delivers very little.
The audience is informed at the beginning that they represent the gods and the ancestors, while the two actresses on stage are the fates, who decide how life is going to turn out.
Their biggest task, however, is to come up with new religions, and be warned if you are quite a religious person, you probably will be offended.
After dragging a male audience member outside and making passionate noises outside the door, one of the Fates then “gives birth” to the new religion, explaining that to reach maturity certain things have to occur including the martyrdom of a messiah, the choosing of religious symbols, acts of temptation and the writing of a book which will serve as the code by which its followers will live.
After a mess-up in which the intended messiah gets run over seven times by a bus, a new messiah has to be chosen and this task falls to a humble librarian, who must fulfill certain prophecies in order for Armageddon to be avoided.
There are also thinly masked comments on the current situation in Zimbabwe. The story is set in a country called Lindiwe, where the president has set himself as a god and the messiah has to find a way to remove him in order to bring salvation to his people.
The two actresses play all the different characters, with only two ladders and a bunch of bananas for their props.
It has its moments, but overall it’s more annoying than amusing and will probably leave you feeling offended rather than entertained.
Tags: comedy review, fate, gods, librarian, martyrdom, messiah, offensive, physical theatre, religion, Theatre review
