OBSERVER: The Ex Files
The city of Melbourne becomes the grandest set imaginable for Matt Bell in one of the queerest criminal investigations of all time.
The audience become voyeurs in the journey craftily linked by headsets that allow us to hear Bell over the city’s din.
Each location on the trail enables Bell to reveal the details of the felony that is ultimately revealed at the end of the journey.
But everything is a deception. Bell is both the victim and the investigator. He is a gay man who has been spurned and wants to find out why. This results in him digitally stalking his former partner.
Bell’s delivery is quirky and genuine. The rapid-fire delivery is full of innuendo, spontaneity, asides, allusions and associations. More importantly, the nature of the humour is self-deprecating and completely identifiable.
And the set, if such it can be called, is cleverly crafted building in intensity until the final climax where the evidence is produced on an iPad. This is a true crime story and life, itself, is the perfect fodder for comedy.
The ease and artlessness of the delivery belies the work that must have gone into producing the show in association with director, Suzy Thresh.
The insights into human behaviour are priceless and the performance platform ingenious. Melbourne is made marvellous as this Fringe production takes centre stage.
Until October 11.
Review by David McLean
Pictured: Matt Bell presents The Ex Files: A Comedy True Crime Tour.