If you’ve yet to catch Sam Simmons in action, 2006 is the year to do it. This year Sam brings us his triumphant “Tales from the Erotic Cat”, a pastiche of drawings, music, stand up and a plastic ficus.
It’s difficult to describe this show and in many ways a little pointless. There are plenty of cats, (with the Erotic Cat making a star turn at the end of the show) stories, seagulls, dramatic tuna, chutney and a grandpa in a couch. See what I mean?
Alan Brough has directed Sam in this show and the influence is apparent, with Sam performing the cream (excuse the pun) of his material and doing so with a level of performance conviction I haven’t seen in him before. Sam never drops out of character throughout the performance even though the character he plays varies during the course of the show, depending on the needs of the different moments. His crowning glory is his performance as the Erotic Cat. This is a piece Sam has been performing for quite a while and it truly gets better with age. It’s worth the cost of admission to see this alone. The only detraction I would make about the show is that the music, although used to great dramatic effect, threatened at times to overwhelm the spoken word aspects of the show, making it difficult to hear Sam.
Sam Simmons is truly absurd. He links disparate ideas and fanciful notions together to create a cohesive whole. It’s easy to do absurdist humour badly, and that trait is often the sign of a hack. As easy as it is to bad absurdist humour it’s as obversely difficult to do it well. Sam Simmons is one of the best and most original protagonists of ‘absurd’ around.
For booking details go to Sam Simmons’ Tales From The Erotic Cat