Review: Behind You! Behind You! April 5, 2012 *1/2

Written by Steve Dawson
By Outcast Theatre
At the Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre, Brunswick, until April 15, 2012
Reviewed by Joe Calleri on April 5, 2012Stars: ★½
Published in Herald Sun on line on April 7, 2012

Behind You! Behind You!

DURING this nightmarish show, one of the characters describes theatre critics as homophobes who demand gay theatre be about AIDS. 

I’m not, I don’t, but I do demand theatre be well written, well performed and entertaining. This show is none of those things.
One of the few positives of this show is its gorgeous set, costume and make-up design. Those elements deserve five stars.
The show is divided into two halves and suffers from a split personality.

The first half is a conventional, though restrained, pantomime-style fairy-tale for adults, with gay gags and double entendres.

The thin narrated tale describes the misadventures of a miller’s son who inherits a flatulent cat, Puss, and together they meet kings, queens, ogres and The Dame who hams it up and sings a couple of cute, original ditties.

After the 20-minute interval the actors re-appear to play the actors who performed in the pantomime.

The second half of the show - a dreary, humourless melodrama - goes like this: Kevin (who cross-dresses in burqas) and Ken were lovers.But Kevin is about to marry a woman, Roslyn, who was having sex with Donna (a cross-dressing man).

Then there’s Tony who is keen on Ken, who still loves Kevin, and Ian who’s had sex with Tony and is still keen on him. Kevin and Ken eventually re-kindle their love and walk off together, as do Roslyn and Donna, and Ian and Tony. Good grief!

The only way to get laughs from this drivel would be if the bar-tender slips you laughing gas with your chardonnay.

By Joe Calleri