Elephents, the latest brainchild from writer Jeffrey Jay Fowler, has all the hallmarks of a good soap opera; love triangles, dramatic deaths and even the odd elephant or two. It’s sort of like Neighbours or Home and Away, you know, if either were set in a dystopian world plagued by power cuts and where going out the door meant risking third degree burns or heatstroke. It also happens to be one of the most enjoyable pieces of theatre I’ve seen lately.
It’s a wonderfully absurd and surreal production, evident right from the play’s opening moments when all but one of the cast tramp on stage wearing elephant masks and proceed to burst into song. Yet despite its quirkiness the stories being told aren’t all that unusual to us, they are the kind of stories that do end up on soap operas around the world. Stories of unrequited love, friendship and relationships on the rocks, but told from a fresh and slightly off-kilter perspective.
One of the production’s highlights for me personally was the writing, which was clever and most importantly funny! With an air of witty cynicism there more than a few lines getting plenty of laughs from the audience. Some credit of course must go to the cast, you could have the funniest script, but sometimes it’s all down to the delivery. I also liked the attention to the finer details, especially in this case the characters names taking on a distinctly elephant flavour (Horton, Mannie etc) which I thought was a nice touch.
I was equally impressed by the quality of the acting on display from the cast, who each had to play multiple characters; with some speedy costume changes at work. Yet despite having actors jumping between roles, each character felt distinctive and unique. It was a great ensemble performance, and whilst the delivery was a little exaggerated at times it felt right given the soap opera style the creators were going for. Special mention must go to Brett Smith, whose elephant masked presence as on stage musician certainly added to the surreal nature of the production.
Elephents is a strange and unusual beast, a quirky play-soap-opera-musical that is utterly entertaining. It’s the kind of show that has all the hallmarks of a Fringe festival hit. So get in quick and see it in the intimate confines of the Blue Room Theatre whilst you can.
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Elephents is running at The Blue Room Theatre until 18th May 2014. Simon Clark reviewed the production on 1st May 2014.
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