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Thursday, September 23, 2010 - Indaily
Monstrous Regiment
The vision that greets the audience at Adelaide’s Bakehouse Theatre of a young lad, head stooped, sitting on a stool at the front of the stage sets the scene for the gender assumptions for the evening. He turns out to be a she – playing a he.
There’s a lot of that in Monstrous Regiment, Unseen Theatre Company’s latest offering from Terry Pratchett’s weird and wacky Discworld, where just about anything goes. And the surprises keep coming.
The story revolves around Polly (Kahlia Tutty) who becomes Private Oliver Perks, on a quest to find her older brother. She’s off to war – one of many instigated by the tiny nation of Borogravia against its neighbours; cannon fodder is increasingly hard to come by. Hence the collection of misfits.
There are a lot of laughs in this production. There are the gender jokes of course, with a pair of socks playing a ‘supporting’ role throughout; the occasional fart noise; and a lot of crotch scratching, nose picking, swearing and swaggering from the girls being boys.
And facial expressions were clearly workshopped gleefully for this play. The double takes, the sly smirks, the wink, winks and the nod, nods. Special mention in the facial expression category must be given to lanky Tom Crisp in his first acting job as Lieutenant Blouse.
Some of the best lines come from Sergeant Jackrum (Paul Messenger) and Maladict the vampire (Kristofa Cassono) who for the time being is “off the blood” and making do with copious cups of coffee.
You could be serious about this evening out, of course. A recognisable theme is the folly of war, with many references applicable to more recent and real events. And then there is the gender conversation. The title is courtesy of 16th-century Protestant reformer John Knox who gives away his disdain of the female persuasion in the title of one of his essays: “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women”.
One for Terry Pratchett fans.
ROSEMARY CADDEN
Monstrous Regiment, Unseen Theatre Company, Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide; until October 2 (Wed to Sat) at 8pm.