THEATRE
Testaclese & ye Sack of Rome
De Parade Teatro 2

Review: Jordan Nix

Sometimes the name can say it all.

Testaclese & ye Sack of Rome is all the warning you need to know the show you’re going to see is less about long-winded Shakespeare and more about shaking your long spear. If you need another warning, it comes from the actors themselves who declare pre-show “this isn’t serious theatre”. It’s all about the puns for the boys of Sound and Fury and they certainly don’t shy away from the sexual innuendo. Never before has being stabbed with a knife felt so good.

Apparently there’s also a storyline.

Evil Queen Fallopia sends her popular son Testaclese to Rome on a mission to bring back the Golden Fleece from Queen Hernia. With characters whose names would give the likes of Pussy Galore a run for their money, a wig and voice is about as much you’ll get in the way of character development, yet it manages to hit all the right notes. The real treat is the natural chemistry of Richard Maritzer, Patrick Hercamp and Ryan Adam Wells. These guys obviously enjoy what they do and the fun they have on stage is infectious (the characters they portray are probably infected too). They even managed to turn up the laughs when a misplaced prop disrupted proceedings.

A major element of the show is the involvement of the audience with the traditional panto jeers, cheers and mystical cat noises. Maritzer, Hercamp and Wells had no trouble rousing a response out of the receptive audience. Despite having no real plot or tension, the show somehow comes to a wonderful climax. Literally.

Hercamp’s physical interpretation of a spitting one-eyed Cyclops who shrinks post-battle is ridiculously funny. There’s no shame or embarrassment about Testaclese & ye Sack of Rome and that’s a wonderful thing.

Testaclese & ye Sack of Rome runs until February 3 and is part of Fringe World 2013