Gravity Boots: Can You Believe We’re in a Forest?

Reviewed by Annie Waters

These guys are weird; really, really weird. If you don’t think you can handle two extremely weird guys, don’t bother reading on; this show is not for you. Still here? Well then, let me elucidate. Adelaide duo Gravity Boots have put together a show that completely eludes classification.

Beginning with camp fireside torchlight shining up into the faces of two overcoat clad men, this act seems to (loosely) take the structure of a Brothers Grimm anthology. The two performers, Michael Cleggett and James Lloyd-Smith, inhabit a diverse mix of characters; from lascivious, scheming spiders to two soft-toy teddy inmates on Death Row discussing dessert and execution across their cell wall via rat phones.

I’m not sure whether Can You Believe We’re in a Forest? is supposed to amuse or disconcert. It does both, in about equal measure; I spent most of the show with my mouth agape, a confused (and at times, horrified) look upon my face, punctuated by bursts of incredulous laughter. For the duration of the performance, you climb inside the minds of two abundantly abnormal gentlemen and rattle around in there for a bit, trawling for the most esoteric references, influences and ideas that you can find. Fans of Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place and The Mighty Boosh will froth over these guys and their macabre brand of bizarre comedy; but honestly, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

With minimal props and basic costumes that resemble calico versions of boys pyjamas, the actors flit through seven or eight sketches, each of which creeps further from reality than the last. The writing is clearly intelligent, and at times the audience is scrambling to keep up. There seems to be an obsession with the feminine, as well as death and the fate of our souls – but this heavy subject matter does not detract from the bizarre hilarity of the show. Rather, we see that the intellect behind this performance is highly attuned to the balance between the truly absurd and the merely inconsistent that marks this show in a class apart. I laughed a lot and came out feeling pretty strange myself.

This show is surreal as all hell and probably a little bit more besides. Go along and see it if you think you can cope.

Gravity Boots: Can You Believe We’re in a Forest?, Tuxedo Cat @Raj House, 14 Feb to 16 Mar