Moot Moot
★★★★☆ Absurdly hilarious
Summerhall (Venue 26): Thurs 8 – Sun 25 Aug 2019
Review by Federica Balbi
I’m good, thanks Barry, how are you? – I’m good, thanks Barry, how are you? – I’m good, thanks Barry, how are you? – I’m good, thanks Barry, how are you?
In Moot Moot at Summerhall, Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill are two DJs who absolutely need to speak but are very bad at improvising. They have the same name, wear the same grey dress and striped tie, same moustache and same silver-sprayed hair, speaking in this loop of pseudo-conversation that hammers like an iambic verse.
Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill. Pic Niall Walker
Welcome to the Barry & Barry Show. The objective of which is to engage in conversation with its audience, discussing any topic of their choice. One problem: nobody calls. The theme songs become more diverse and more frequent, the speech shifts sense, loses sense, dissolves in pure sound effect.
The exaggeration of totally plausible circumstances gives birth to a Beckettian situation. Nothing happens, and the void must be filled with voice, stretching the expectation for something that doesn’t seem to be coming.
absurdity and nonsense
Despite their suits and their curated Nineties look, the two DJs start playing with their office chairs and with voice effects (soundscape by Yas Clarke). The contrast is probably the first element that frees hilarity. Even though not everybody will find it funny, most of the audience was having fun and some people could not stop cackling at the absurdity and nonsense.
This brilliant play is a production Cade & MacAskill working with the Take Me Somewhere Artists Constellation and Edinburgh-based Independent Arts Projects. Behind the fun, one can read an interrogation of the value of media in our society and our new common ways of communicating. An unusual show that’s worth seeing.
Running time: 1 hour (no interval)
Summerhall, Demonstration Room,1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL (Venue 26)
Thursday 8 – Sunday 25 August 2019
Daily, not Mons: 1:30 pm
Tickets and details: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/moot-moot
Company site: https://takemesomewhere.co.uk/cade-macaskill
Facebook: @CadeMacaskill
Twitter: @cademacaskill
Twitter: @TMSomewhere
ENDS
