At Volcano Theatre |
| Volcano Theatre- Hitting Funny , Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff , April 29, 2005 |
| this review first appeared in the Western mail... If there’s a racing certainty about Volcano Theatre, it’s that you can never be sure what will come next. The last show was a reality-tv influenced take on Romeo and Juliet, without the sub-plots and, indeed, without the romance, which some critics hated and most audiences loved. Now they have a one-man show about stand-up comedy, which I suspect most critics will love and some audiences at least will hate – at a recent gig there were 35 walk-outs. To call Hitting Funny a show about stand-up comedy barely hints at what Philip Ralph achieves in 75 minutes or so of non-stop monologue. Basically it’s a lament for the power of the comic as political subversive – but that’s just for starters. On the surface it’s an aggressive, offensive comedy turn that leaves few stones unturned in its attempt to shock and make you laugh, initially like early Ben Elton on speed or a quick-fire foul-mouthed Jeremy Hardy lacking any redeeming qualities of likeability or ideological commitment. But that is Chris Rich, the man who greets us as we take our seats, mumbling head-down wearing a red nose, a man who rants about pornography, the carnal weakness of men and the unsexiness of female tattoos, piercings, fat midriffs and thongs. Or rather, it’s the on-stage persona of comedian Chris Rich, while Chris Rich is the character created by actor Philip Ralph (and that’s probably an alias anyway)… Confused ? Well, while there may seem to have been little consistency to Volcano shows there is one common concern: identity, the question of where the performer stops and the character takes over, and whether what you see is what you get – the manifestations of what’s called the postmodern condition – and Hitting Funny explores just that. Well, to an extent. What it is more concerned with is the role of comedy (another ongoing Volcano issue) in an age where Marx’s old adage about history repeating itself first as tragedy and then as farce appeals to many a left-leaning performer. Philip Ralph here invokes the spirits of the likes of Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, those controversial American stand-ups who changed the face of comedy by outraging audiences. What Ralph does is confuse, confront and confound us as to whether what he (as Chris Rich or as Rich’s performing alter-ego) is doing is for real or pastiche as his jokes get ever more extreme, questioning just where we draw the line – in this case, it’s just after coprophilia, with a torrent of graphic descriptions that simultaneously repulse and make you laugh (maybe), the climax of an exhausting line on the bizarre nature of human sexuality. Nothing is sacred. Christianity, terrorism, paedophilia, auto-eroticism, all are used as subjects for comedy, and we have to ask whether we laugh because it actually is funny or because a taboo subject treated with irreverence makes us laugh. Underlying all this is the ultimate conundrum: what is the relation between comedy and politics and is the lack of a latter-day Lenny Bruce another sign that we have lost the battle against hegemonic conformity ? Have we, like stand-up comics, sold out or bought in ? Ralph asks uncomfortable, difficult questions in a play (and, we have to remind ourselves, that’s what it is) that is intelligent, startling and one of the best things Volcano has produced. His performance, under Paul Davies’s direction, is superb as he manages to be both a wildly anarchically funny stand-up comic and offer a critique of contemporary comedy. Brilliant. |
Reviewed by: David Adams |
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