The Accident : lost in irony?
As I recall, the first show of last year’s Fringe was, for me, The Spy by Jonno Katz, it started the festival off with a BANG! This year I was happy to repeat the feat with his latest offering The Accident…*whimper*
Please understand that, after years of hearing what an amazing, talented artist Mr Katz is, and after seeing his hilariously tight and energetic show from last year, I had high expectations for this piece. Does that mean I think the show a bomb? Not in the least!
This is a tale of 3 people, Sebastian (an aspiring conceptual artist), his keeper and older brother Roy, and the woman they ‘love’. They are all tossed into the workings of a giant digestive “shit-machine” that Sebastian conceives while on the toilet and they are forced to wend their way through substandard intestines made from plumbing held together with gaff tape.
Doesn’t sound very pleasant, but in the hands of Mr Katz, the characters do their damnedest to survive and find the love they have for each other and ultimately they do. From hilariously awkward moments to poignant reconciliations to brotherly banter, the tale of these three gives you plenty of ideas why this piece is called The Accident before it is finally spelt out for you.
Fans will be happy to see Jonno has lost none of his character morphing skills, comedic timing or absurdly hilarious miming. Some will undoubtedly be pleased with new found ‘modern dance meets capoeira’ movements that are also thrown into the mix, but herein lies my concern. Perhaps it has been too long since I studied Martha Graham because I found the interspersed sections of ‘dance’ too disconnected from the rest of the tale. Entertaining moments and movements punctuate the spaces between ‘story’ and leave us scratching our heads, searching for a reason they exist. Did Mr Katz put them there to represent that which we do not understand about our own inner workings? I’ll have to ask him.
If I may utilize young Sebastian’s terminology; He has conceived a delicate machine comprised of a plethora of parts, functioning in various stages, and all working together to produce a finished product, and that, no matter what you feed it, will always be ‘shit’. However, if you feed it ‘crap’ to begin with: you lose the irony of it all.
Perhaps the irony was lost on me. Go see for yourself and let me know.
For more show information go here.
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