Stuart Bowden: She Was Probably Not a Robot

Reviewed by Annie Waters

Stuart Bowden is a man with very impressive eyebrows and a vast, and sometimes disturbing, imagination. This one-man show features a range of characters who deal with love, loss, new beginnings and the nature of humanity.

Beginning on stage, conspicuously dressed in a white sheet, Bowden shuffles forward, singing eerily and playing a repetitive tune on a tiny, barely concealed keyboard. Awkward chuckles grow into out-and-out laughter as he loses the sheet and starts prancing absurdly around the small stage, working his eyebrows and the crowd with considerable aplomb. The laughs continue as he begins to outline the setting for the show: it is 2040 and everyone in the crowd is dead. “You’re dead. You’re dead. You’re definitely dead”, singling out members of the audience and describing their horrific demises in between bouts of his melodic chanting. Surprise, surprise, the only person left alive after the calamitous floods and fires is Bowden himself, comatose on his air mattress after an evening of drinking, mourning his separation from his girlfriend, Veronica.

Watching this from above is the “alien lady who looks like a robot man”, Celeste, who has been orbiting the earth for 25,000 years, observing the goings-on of humanity like her very own afternoon soap opera. Switching between the two characters, Bowden does not attempt to disguise the fact that this is a one-man operation; his scene changes are just as amusing as the scenes themselves. Each character has particular tropes and tag-lines that become all the more funny as the audience began to predict their appearance; I heard one group yelling “SEE YA” as they left the theatre, mimicking Celeste’s oft-repeated exit-line as she moved slowly towards the wings.

As well as portraying all of the main characters (and miming many others), Bowden is his own sound tech, and the music choices vastly contribute to the bizarre feeling of the performance. Using ethereal instrumental tracks that sound like they belong on the Triple J late night show ‘Sound Lab’, Bowden creates an other-worldly atmosphere. This minimalist approach is continued when it comes to props and costumes, with at most one key piece being incorporated in each scene. The driving force in this show is Bowden’s energy and dedication – you leave the performance space entirely won over by his characters and their endearing story.

As much an analogy for one man’s recovery from a break-up as it is a reflection on our wilful destruction of the planet, She Was Probably Not a Robot is a heartfelt, amusing and inventive show.

Stuart Bowden: She Was Probably Not a Robot, Tuxedo Cat @Raj House, 20 Feb to 2 Mar