OBSERVER: The Wedding
After sell-out shows earlier this year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Andy Balloch’s hilarious one-man show The Wedding had a short season at Trades Hall as part of the Fringe Festival.
As guests at a wedding reception for the gay couple Tony and David, the audience are entertained by the master of ceremonies as well as several of the bride and groom’s friends and family. All’s well that ends well. Sort of.
Written and performed by Andy Balloch, the script is a masterclass in comic writing.
Unified by a couple of running jokes throughout the evening, the script has a myriad of characters typically in attendance at such events, all of whom are beautifully sketched with economic precision.
However, make no mistake, the demands a script like this places on the performer are challenging indeed; in lesser hands it could be shambolic.
Balloch though, performing the central role of the master of ceremonies, but also the sundry other personae dramatis, rose to the occasion.
With wonderful timing, the essence of great comedy, he brought each character to life, warts and all.
In addition, the icing on the cake here is his obvious pleasure at bringing these characters to life, a pleasure which was highly infectious.
Credit for a show like this lies not with only the script and performer though, as wonderful both were.
In this case Justin Porter, the director, ably assisted no doubt with outside eye roles credited to Anna Piper-Scott and Florian Wild, did a fantastic job of realising the script and showcasing Balloch’s fantastic comedic acting skills. The show was tight, using a range of simple yet effective props, such as a pair of glasses, a clipboard or a jacket, to add to Balloch’s vocal work and mannerisms in portraying the potpourri of characters.
An extremely polished professional evening’s entertainment then, The Wedding was a fitting showcase for the many talents of the gifted Mr Balloch.
Review by Peter Murphy