★★★★★
Interactive Theatre International. Royal Coach Motor Inn. 10 Mar 2023
I think I’ve found the best Fringe Show ever!
For a couple of reasons Confetti & Chaos is just a brilliantly excellent and totally scatty show to be part of. Oh yes, I said ‘part of’. The audience can become totally immersed in the action as it unfolds, if they wish, and on opening night many people so wished.
Suddenly, you have theatre provided by the people, for the people, and it can be a little dangerous. The scenario is simple; you attend the venue for Confetti & Chaos as a guest invited to the wedding reception of Stacy and Will. Her parents are Raymond and Lyn (an excellent performance from an actor we saw a few years ago as Mrs Fawlty in the other show). There’s a few others, including best man Ricky, who is something of a scene stealer, getting down to his underpants for the scene involving Abba’s Dancing Queen. Music tends to be a running gag through the show; and the completely appropriate wedding song is Elton John’s I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.
“No other wedding invites such charming calamity and tenderness,” their press material says smugly, and for once it’s true. I can honestly say I have never attended a wedding reception which was so funny. The audience is involved from the get-go. It stands to reason that each night will be different, depending on the level of audience involvement, which determines just how close the whole show comes to teetering wildly on the edge. A huge shout out to the table front and centre who supplied some wonderful interjections.
This is the English organisation who bring us the Fawlty Towers The Dining Experience, so you can be sure you’re getting a reasonable quality product. Also, as part of a dining experience, a 3 course meal is provided in the ticket price. It’s not gourmet, but it’s perfectly adequate. The thing here is the actors are not constrained by the roles they are playing. Unlike in ‘Faulty Towers…’ their characters are not known, so they can take the humour and the narrative as far as they like, just so long as they’re able to return to the central storyline as required. Since they’re playing along with the audience this works a treat.
Alex Wheaton
When: 10 to 19 Mar
Where: Royal Coach Motor Inn
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
