Duo Levi Meltzer and Sam Berlin weave a surreal tale of bathroom porcelain pals in the bowels of Underbelly.
A lonely toilet attendant chats to his queue (the audience) as they wait to use his best friend: a urinal, lovingly constructed in papier mâché. One day, it simply grows legs and decides to leave for the bright lights of the city and through a mix of classic shadow puppetry and clowning we follow its adventures.
At first the audience aren’t quite sure what to expect, especially as a front-row gent is asked onstage to use the urinal! Mercifully, it’s all simulated with comedy sound effects, and they even provide an adaptor for those who might need it… We meet all sorts of odd characters as Meltzer hunts for the urinal, from the French farmer with a penchant for large cabbages, to the gentrified dog unimpressed at gauche attempts to play fetch and messengers taking payment in urinal cakes.
The shadow puppets are lovingly detailed, even the slightly more anatomical ones. But it’s still a hit with the kids; one lucky girl in the audience got to wear the cabbage hat and control the sounds of an invisible typewriter, and was delighted with the results. The quiz was also popular, with an unexpected side of proletarian rallying. By the time we reached the final scenes, soundtracked with sad flute music, the odd morality tale had come to an abrupt end in a poignant way.
The Fringe, at its heart, is about the weird and challenging shows, and Readymades have made just that. It will certainly make you think about your toilet pal in a new light.
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