Lano & Woodley – Moby Dick

The viewers is primed with a nautical jig earlier than foreboding music and projected photos of a white whale take over. The Moby Dick saga is summarised within the duo’s opening tune, setting everybody up for a useful retelling that’s shortly fractured.

Why so? Lano is continually annoyed as he unsuccessfully tries to persuade Woodley that the present is solely storytelling relatively than a play. Naturally, Woodley disagrees. He additionally expects to make use of the costumes and props with which he has come geared up. To complicate issues, Woodley doesn’t settle for that he’s not even within the present.

The efficiency hinges on this exclusion and the props, together with how to not use them. There are pleasant slapstick moments. The briefly spouting mini-whale, as an example, is infantile and charming.

Interplay between the 2, both as comedians with their respective dilemmas in regards to the present or when performing of their novel characters, typically with a clowning aspect, depart the viewers in blissful suspense about what would possibly come subsequent.

Years of performing collectively have developed the duo’s sharp and fast wit. The script is interwoven with beautiful advert libs at which each are fascinatingly adept. A memorable apart to the viewers, for instance: “You realize this isn’t part of the present as a result of if it was we’d minimize it.” Advert lib or intelligent writing?

When finally ejected, the unthwarted Woodley finds a strategy to reappear, however in a distinct capability. The next dialogue (no spoilers) is “visible”, regardless of largely being carried out in darkness. It’s imaginative and really amusing.

On this evening, Lano and Woodley each cleverly performed off the viewers responses, and particularly the presence of a five-year-old close to the entrance who was watching a efficiency pitched at a 15+ crowd. Accountable parenting, they ask? They moderated their swearing and wittily addressed the matter of language they may have used, earlier than utilizing it anyway.

The script is layered; a wickedly humorous comedy inside a comedy and fairly cerebral in locations. At one level, Lano pauses to ask himself and the viewers, “What even is that this present?”. In a way, the reply is simple: it’s an hour of unadulterated pleasure from a pair of seasoned previous salts.

Lano & Woodley – Moby Dick continues in The Barboli within the Backyard of Unearthly Delights till March 19.

Learn extra 2023 Adelaide Fringe tales and evaluations on InReview right here.