Direct from Germany via Iraq the world’s biggest megastars, Vena und Schnitzel, have come to Australia to bring us their all singing, all dancing entertainment spectacular.
With their trusty announcer and organist, Washington, Vena und Schnitzel presented a show of witty banter, funky musical numbers and live crosses via satellite around the world. There was the game show segment in which a contestant played for the life of a dubious freak of nature and a telethon to raise money for the V und S cause (specifically their continued expansion across the globe).
The boys were joined by a huge number of guests during the show. We had a Mexican doctor promoting smoking and a German slap dancing trio. There was a musical number by Madam Klusleilmuth who was tethered to V and S to protect the audience. We witnessed a battle of magical powers between Yertle the Mystic Turtle and Washington the Magician and even Vena and Schnitzel’s good friend God put in an appearance.
Beginning as a series of apparently unrelated segments, the show later settled into a cohesive storyline in which the V und S Corporation was threatened by the forces of evil. Considering the initial grotesqueness of the Vena and Schnitzel characters, it was a slight stretch to now see them as the hero figures. With villains including a cartoonish Adolf Hitler, this leap of logic was a little easier to make.
The title characters were played to bizarre perfection with plenty of camping it up. In keeping with the overly stereotypical German personas, they mangled Australian slang as well as the English language. Each character introduced to the show was more eccentric than the last and were played up to the enth degree. With the performers often playing multiple characters, there was many costume changes.
A screen at the rear of the stage showed an almost continuous barrage of visuals that sometimes took your attention away from the performers on stage. This was fine when the visual was integral to the story but it occasionally posed the danger of missing something. I’m not sure if it was solely due to my position high up on the grandstand next to a speaker but the music, sound effects and speech in the video footage often drowned out the dialogue from the performers on the stage. Despite this, the audio component of the show was used to keep the show pumping along like a shot of adrenalin.
The action was suitably surreal with many moments of cartoon violence. Many jokes and segments of questionable taste kept us simultaneously appalled and in hysterics. For fans of the strange and off the wall, this show certainly delivers. Just like in Vena und Schnitzel’s often quoted catchphrase, they brought “the audience to their knees, and then to their feet.”
Check out 2006 Vena Und Schnitzel’s World Calypso Experience Tonight for booking details.