I’ve heard great things about Hannah Camilleri’s work over the past few years, mostly enthusiastic raves where the general consensus is – they don’t know how she does it. Dinner Hannah Show is my first time seeing one of her shows and it was really delightful.
Devised as
an ode to theatre and what makes it tick – from performers (overly emotional)
to backstage creatives (calmer and methodical), Dinner Hannah Show is a
pretty gentle show that keeps us laughing throughout because we never know who
we’ll meet next. And with a healthy dose of improvisation and crowd work,
Hannah needs to be on her toes.
Hannah
picks audience members to be a scene partner, an understudy and the director of
the show and, on the night I saw it, the audience-director had some great
comebacks.
When a show
promises sketch, comedy, clown and improv, especially in a one-person show, I
always brace myself for “too much” or wondering where the performer’s strengths
really lie. It’s hard to balance those elements, let alone be great at them
all. Hannah balances them all remarkably well, delivering a creation full of
just the right balance of ingredients.
I also
appreciate that in a sea of shows that have turned themselves to 11, Dinner
Hannah Show knows that subtlety can produce laughs, too.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
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