I'm not sure if this really counts for this section, but there's a review of one of the shows in the Auckland Comedy Festival in today's NZ Herald (back page, section A) which has a Star Wars connection ... and it's not the show you would first think either ...
Small step for Kiwi is a giant leap for laughs
Rocket-ship story is a laugh a minute and yeti caper is far from abominable.
Two theatre shows on as part of the comedy festival this week - one is about a yeti, the other about a Kiwi-built rocket-ship - are both outlandish in their own right.
Space Race takes a laugh-a-minute look at New Zealand's race with "the yanks" to get to the moon in 1969, whereas Dan Is Dead / I Am A Yeti is about a yeti who lives with newly weds in an Avondale bedsit. Oh, and the yeti also knows Sir Edmund Hillary after meeting him on Mt Everest back in the day. But more on that silliness soon.
{Review of Space Race trimmed out}
Meanwhile, a love story of a more sordid variety unravels when actress (and co-writer of the show) Natalie Medlock - who also plays Jill on Shortland Street - dons a deliciously fluffy and soft white suit to become Yeti.
Medlock and fellow writer Dan Musgrove are known for their fruity comedies, including Christ Almighty, but this lark about Yeti (whose accent is like some sort of pidgin Asian language-meets-Borat with a lisp) and her flatmates Tvette (lovely, but disillusioned) and Tom (a paunchy, painful and randy Star Wars addict) could be their most crazed yet.
Medlock's cheeky Yeti grin, which grows more convincing and sinister as the play goes on, is devilishly good, as is her accent, and then there's Yeti's visit to WINZ ("Who would employ a Yeti?"), and Yvette's Dave Dobbyn sex fanasties (which soon become a reality when she cavorts with Dave on his superyacht after a wild night out with Yeti).
Soyes, Dan Is Dead / I Am A Yeti is utterly ridiculous, but as my comedy-going sidekick put it, they pull it off. And they do it with snappy delivery, intense memoments (at one point Tom gets so angry he breaks his Star Wars mobile, for Chewbacca's sake) and downright absurd fun.
Space Race is on at the Basement at 7:00pm until Saturday. Dan Is Dead / I Am A Yeti is on at the Basement at 8:30pm until Saturday.
