Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Crazy Glue’, which he saw at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn. It’s also at Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre on Wednesday 18th November
It’s amazing what you can do with one tube of glue, two exceedingly talented and elastic performers and an audience who are on their imaginative metal.
Together we transformed a very short Etgar Keret story into a larger-than-life piece of vibrant drama in which barely an intelligent word is spoken. The cast really didn’t have time for words; their mouths were far too busy peppering their play with amazingly precise sound effects. The vocal impressions are immaculate … from a squeaky tap to a child’s whirling nursery mobile; and from a constipated chicken to a huge dollop of glue just going ‘splat’. And the timing of the miming, from tender caresses to comedy prat falls, is tighter than an atomic clock.
Their routine of a married couple going through their morning bathroom ritual, for example, is a delight.
The story emerges between the business. It’s a couple in love, awaiting their first baby. So the first part of the show is bubbly and loveable. But we know from a brief prelude, that a tragedy is looming…which plunges the relationship in depression and despair.
Suddenly the same jolly techniques that portrayed beauty and bliss are now pressed into action to display anger and alcoholism. The expressions become more emotional and the miming metaphorical. It’s a remarkable transformation. Suddenly, this show is not just being played for laughs any more…. it’s going for your guts too.
The observations of a marriage coming unstuck are painfully accurate.
Filipa Tomas and Bradley Wayne Smith have been performing this show together for over a year now and it is consequently incredible slick. But the joy and pain they convey is as fresh as if they’d just felt it.
So much is going on I suspect I missed some of nuances; and there were a handful of mimes I failed to clock. But I still came away feeling I’d never seen a show quite like it…and very glad that I now have.
This is creative, cutting-edge programming at Theatre Severn and it deserves an audience.
Photo : Alex Brenner