Presented by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Le Cascadeur. 5 Mar 2015

 

Max and Ivan have arrived for the first time on the Adelaide Fringe so loaded with stars, comedy awards and critical acclaim that one wonders how they made the trip.

 

But they are talented fellows and are probably going to drag themselves away with an even heavier load.

 

Their show, Max & Ivan: The End is a narrative comedy describing the hapless occupants of an English town called Sudley- on-Sea. It's a lovely awful place which brags carparks, a reef of detritus, a nuclear power plant and a rest home.

 

It also has its local aristocracy, its gay arts icons, classic disagreeing councillors, a misunderstood aspiring children's book writer and woeful lovelorn nerd - among others.

 

These characters whisk in and out of the story, swiftly embodied by Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez aka Max & Ivan.

 

They call the show "sketch comedy" and, indeed, there are myriad little vignettes embodied in the overall story which tells of the evacuation of poor Sudley due to power plant malfunction.

 

The performers are of high-energy and quick reflexes.  They shift patter and accents to and fro and establish a panoply of characters, some endearing and some repulsive. Therein lies much of the comedy. But it is not all funny. There's a thread of serious satire and a certain lampooning of British stereotypes. 

 

Bottom line is that these are highly-trained and highly-disciplined performers working with a beautifully-crafted script.  

 

They engage with chosen audience members, most successfully on opening night with a front row beauty called Melody who turned out to be a star in her own right.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 5 to 15 Mar

Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Le Cascadeur

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au