There are absolutely no clues to the storyline in the title Madeleine Tucker’s Unfashionable Windcheater Factory (or the Production Company’s website for that matter) so many will be disappointed by the lack of a Windcheater Factory, but Madeleine Tucker’s name is all over it. This writer/director/performer was part of last year’s ‘Putting Hats On Ducks’ at MICF and this show is another crazy spectacle. It portrayed the adventures of Rodney the Goblin which were more like a series of vaguely related vignettes which despite their apparent random nature had a somewhat clear narrative structure underneath. This kept the audience on their toes as the story veered off regularly into strange and unexpected paths.
Video segments were used between some of the scenes to occupy the audience’s attention while the cast changed costumes and reset the stage. These were highly imaginative, did nothing to progress the story and tended to go on for a bit too long. The absurdity of them fitted in perfectly with the atmosphere of the show but most punters had gotten the joke within the first minute.
Everything about this production was deliberately daggy and low tech. Costumes were fashioned from household objects to create the strange beings that inhabited this world. On the surface these outfits weren’t obvious portrayals but once you cottoned on to what they represented you marvelled at their inventiveness. The same technique was employed to fashion props and secondary characters from everyday items that were both cute and strange. This method was used to enact a most impressive scene of cartoon violence which was a highlight of the show. Even the videos were given the shonky treatment with visible wires and hands moving objects about. This added an extra dimension of hilarity at the sheer silliness and apparent ineptness of what you were observing.
A number of catchy, original songs were included that added some quirky humour; that is if you could actually hear the lyrics. The audio was a tad on the quiet side so any brilliant jokes in the songs were lost if you didn’t concentrate intensely. From what I could decipher, they were rather clever in their wordplay. Hopefully this a venue issue rather than another low-fi production value as it detracted from their impact.
All the cast played their parts broadly which was the perfect way to do a show such as this. In addition to Madeleine were Carly Ellerbock, Andrew Rivett and Neil Sinclair who all put on stellar performances. None of the characters were particularly bright and a healthy dose of overacting highlighted this brilliantly. The many hilariously bad puns and non-sequiturs were all delivered in an exaggerated and hammy manner that was a great way of signposting them; not necessarily for the audience’s benefit but more in keeping with the characters personalities.
This was a wonderfully silly and fun way to spend an hour. It promised a ramshackle comedy and certainly delivered in spades.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.