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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Made up voices: Me and Mr C @Ovalhouse


After watching Gary Kitching’s improvised performance at Oval House Theatre, Me and Mr C, you realise that you probably had the most fun you could invent for an evening.

On our night, audience members were chanting “Pigfucker! Pigfucker! Pigfucker!” as part of a lesson in organised heckling, while the remainder of us were rolling around in hysterics at the premise.

Kitching has come up with an act that derives its humour from getting the audience to do stuff. Lots of stuff. And amazingly everyone does what they are told.

The premise is simple. Mr C is the ventriloquist dummy that he bought online, and becomes the voice inside his head that he is no good.

But along the way Kitching invites the audience to give him the ideas for the dullest job imaginable, the dreary items people have in their front rooms, their kitchens and their hallways. Words of good advice are noted down and it all becomes part of the piece he then acts out the story of a man who wants to do a job he really loves.

Audience participation can be tricky and (particularly with jaded London theatregoers) it can be difficult getting anyone wanting to get involved. Perhaps the lively and funky audiences of the Ovalhouse were much more open minded. They at least had inspired suggestions for the choice of music at key parts of the story.

In the end people went along with the ride. But as Kitching warns at the start, “it could be shit.” I suspect he is too smart for it to be that, but every night certainly will be different.

Me and Mr C is part of the Fabulism season at Ovalhouse which concludes this month. The season has been about covering the fantastical in the everyday. Check out Gary Kitching’s website for other dates for Me and Mr C.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

"Me and Mr C" by Gary Kitching from Selma Greyscale on Vimeo.

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