In last year’s festival, Sam Simmons and Dave Callan collaborated to bring us The Sunshine Factory, the strange story of two Manly Men living in a lighthouse. This year they have brought us a “Sequel” that is conducted as a radio play. There are a few references to the last show, but this is almost an entirely different beast.
This year’s show has an expanded cast. Joining Dave and Sam are Eddie Perfect as The Narrator, a sound effects guy and a gentleman providing some of the musical backing.
There were also a number of cameos from performers who emerged from the audience, delivering their lines before retreating back into the crowd. We had Tim Minchin as “The Handsome Dandy” who destroyed Dave’s ceramic panda collection and the “female lady” from MICF who arrived to conduct a survey before being killed off. The highlight of these cameos was “The Coach” Tom Gleeson who arrived to the blare of an airhorn, delivering oranges and words of wisdom to the cast.
Just like any other show that Sam has had a hand in writing, this is superbly bizarre and surreal. Whilst the story itself is supposed to be set in the lighthouse, don’t expect it to spend very long there. There is a fantastic blurring of reality where one minute the cast are portraying the characters in the lighthouse and the next the radio play cast are interacting with one another, usually with creative abuse. It doesn’t help matters that Dave And Sam are playing characters named Dave and Sam, but this sense of confusion just adds to the brilliant lunacy.
Keeping with the Radio Play theme there were some hilarious pre recorded advertisement for everyday objects, but with a strange twist.
Music played are sizable role in the proceedings. From the Polyphonic Spree styled opening theme song to the songs that Sam launched into for seemingly no apparent reason, they were highly entertaining. There were even short themes associated with a couple of phrases of dialogue that kept the musical director on his toes. The sound effects guy was put through his paces as well. There was a sequence in which the Narrator read a list of bizarre description for him to provide the sounds for.
The dialogue of the show was a delight to hear. The English language was mangled to within an inch of its’ life, providing a continuous onslaught of hilarious lines. Especially enjoyable was a segment where Sam and Dave traded a series of creative insults that went on for several pages, including strange names, song lyrics and random sentences.
It was obvious that the performers were having a hell of a time on stage. There was much suppressed laughter from the cast and they seemed to surprise each other at times. It was hard to tell whether some of this was in the script or they took it upon themselves to improvise. With the never ending sequence of off the wall behavior portrayed in the show, it didn’t really matter.
This show is one hell of a ride. They push the Weird ‘O Meter into overload and it didn’t drop. It is an awesome show for people with short attention spans or those with a taste for the absurd. If that’s you (or not) check out The Sunshine Factory for booking details.
Christmas!