If you were lucky enough to catch Kate McLennan’s Barry Award nominated show, The Debutante Diaries, last year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival then you will already have a handle on the style of McLennan’s comedy. She’s the female Chris Lilley, creating intelligent well-crafted figures that you love and loathe in equal measures. In The Enthusiasts McLennan conjures up a cast of diverse characters, passionate individuals, who are all mad for something.
Janine Irene Bellows invites us all to take part in her self-help motivational lecture series and to join her Dream Catchers group. She’ll arm you with the skills to fight off energy-rapists (that’s you kids) and when she gets behind the wheel of her dream bus you best get out of her way.
We also meet Natalie Steggles, a Justin Timberlake fan who will stop at nothing to get front and centre at all of JT’s shows. And try as you might you will find it very hard to dislike the womanising Chad Coppin, bogan philosopher and sexual liberator of the sad and lonely women of Melbourne. I found the nutty teacher/Wiggles fan Miranda Jacobs the weirdest of the lot but the sweet MS Readathon champ Janie Brown just stole my heart.
McLennan is an amazing writer and performer with great eye for detail – a simple gesture or expression conveys the inner-workings of each character to the audience. The show is full of laughs, light and shade and equal doses of acid and affection.
The Enthusiasts is definitely one of the highlights of this year’s festival program. McLennan’s star is well and truly on the rise so book a seat in her dream bus before tickets are sold out.
Visit the comedy festival website for bookingd and further details