Low Down

You might well choke on your laughter - this top-notch physical comedy is an offence to good taste.

Review

Nick Jesper and Paul Mundell elevate the rituals of bureaucracy to a display of shirt-and-tie wearing, clipboard waving absurdity. Jesper is overseeing Mundell’s training for some kind of clerical task. It’s the classic dumb-but-all-too-willing apprentice scenario and the two launch enthusiastically into all manner of buffoonery. 

Office politics finds an outlet in homo-erotic arse-offering and a there’s a plethora of clownish misunderstandings…all very entertaining. 

But already the show’s deplorable intent is creeping up on us. Jesper’s level of job satisfaction is disturbingly high…he’s especially enthusiastic about inflicting pain… It gradually becomes clear that Mundell is being groomed to administer torture. From amusing satire the show starts to look more like a sick cartoon of horrific violence. Can of Worms uses the joy of physical theatre to mount a shamelessly blunt attack on some recent political issues – a brutally effective combination. 

It gives the show great balance to reverse the roles for the second half – here Jesper is mute and we’re treated to a terrific vocal performance from Mundell as a political spin-doctor driven to distraction by an assistant who’s doing everything possible to let the cat out of the bag. 

His incensed rant on everything that the government “would never do – of course we would never do!” feels like a tirade against Guantanamo Bay – this is the show at its most outspoken. It’s a testament to its fluent theatricality that this didactic streak never becomes overpowering.

Reviewed by Hugh Chapman 04.08.07

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