Mel is trapped in a simulation where she is being instructed on how to make bread. An android version of her appears before us in an attempt to recreate “normal” so that Mel can be released back into the world.
Award-winning
comedian Mel McGlensey’s shows lean into clowning in a big way and her collaboration
with Vidya Rajan last year with GREG – an ode to or perhaps a sacrifice in the
name of Greg – was weird and wild and completely unpredictable. Of course, a show
called NORMAL isn’t going to be “normal” – whatever that means. But how
abnormal does it become? And is it totally the audience’s fault when things go
off-the-normal-rails?
Normal includes
everyone’s favourite things at a comedy festival show – crowd work and audience
participation. But beyond that, the show is also gamified by co-creator Douglas
Wilson: each time the audience is asked to choose their own adventure, an app
measures our raucous responses and Mel does whatever the result is.
Do you want
to see her do FBI or Big Titty Baby or Tooth Touch? You’ll never know what
might happen and neither does Mel. On the night I saw the show, the audience was
wildly unpredictable – from the loud
golfer to the contrarian in the front row – and I was called on to be the
ultimate arbiter of “normal”.
Mel is game
for whatever and has to be. Every night is different by design and as always
with audience participation, you gotta hope the crowd is up for anything, too.
Normal is
sort of a commentary on artificial intelligence and its ability to turn all of
human knowledge and art into slop. The human element is what makes art art and
what makes comedy hilarious. Mel and Doug have created a show that is the exact
opposite of what it says on the tin, but at the comedy festival, you wouldn’t
want it any other way.
Ridiculous,
enthralling and fucking hilarious. Not normal.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Comments