Thursday, August 12, 2010

Dr Brown Because 5 Star Review in FringeReview


Fringe Review



Edinburgh Fringe 2010

 

Dr Brown Because 



Genre: Physical Theatre



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Venue: Just the Tonic at the Caves


Low Down


Dr Brown Because, is a celebration of the absurd. It’s a skilful demonstration of the ability for humans to communicate clearly with very little dialogue. A one man show  that hangs on the twitches, stares and physical stamina of its protagonist and the sweat of a fearful audience.

Review


Dr Brown Because, is a celebration of the absurd. It’s a skilful demonstration of the ability for humans to communicate clearly with very little dialogue. A one man show  that hangs on the twitches, stares and physical stamina of its protagonist and the sweat of a fearful audience.
Dr Brown presents a series of scenarios that this late night audience immediately respond to. Entering the stage on a series of staccato light cues, he first amuses with statuesque poses then retreats to the rear of the auditorium to make his entrance, between the audience, rolling down the aisle on a chair. Eating a banana, he checks out his audience stopping regularly to see whose there. His eyes a world of wonder- searching for sympathy maybe, we are unsure what our relationship will be with this clown. He takes no time to show us the rules. He is not here to entertain us, we are here to entertain him. We are his toys!
For the first 30 minutes, Dr Brown, doesn’t say a single word, yet manages to order us about with subtle nuances in his face and gesticulations. He has no inhibitions whatsoever and adores intrusion into personal space.  The audience love it, they are bright eyed with fear that they will be selected to partner him, yet delighted and relieved when his picks someone else.  With a series of intelligent slap stick, precision timing and intuitive understanding of human body language, he holds our attention 100%, you daren’t take your eyes of him. His mime of a puppet show is downright filthy, and immensely clever. He manages to collectively eke out the deviant thoughts in the audiences smutty minds, reprimanding us and encouraging us to continue at the same time. The show develops to new heights of hilarity when he does eventually speak. A little hesitant voice, and he liberally seasons his short outbursts of spoken word with, moans and groans of delight.
 He involves the audience at every opportunity and this makes for great white knuckle ride theatre. This performer is challenging himself as well as us. His pornographic antics are truly revealing. Any of these scenes could go horribly wrong and they alter depending on the nature of the audience, which provides unpredictable and thought provoking theatre.  He has no compunction about retracing his steps to reiterate a point and this is a skill in itself. His bizarre quiz show that culminates in the relentless singing of happy birthday is still making me laugh as I write this nearly 24 hours later. This show is sublime. He maintains his character with such intensity, this included his inventive audio and lighting cues, which he triggered with the same mannerisms that he controlled the audience with. The guffawing and snorting laughter in the room was uncontrollable, assisting the genuine comic display, slick timing and audacity. This man, the American Philip Burgers, is a master clown but I wouldn’t dare say that to his face.
Reviewed by Althea Stentiford 12th August 2010

Website :

7-28 August
23.10pm
55mins

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