David JoblingYing Tong | A Walk with the Goons
November 5th 2008 13:32
:
Adelaide Festival Centre
Review
The Great Sea-Goon, may his carcass smile, as I'm sure his spirit would, somewhat confusedly imagined the drying caterpillar in the puddle. "I wasn't expecting the rain", he cried, and so on so long as you count two knees. Yes, the surreal comedy of the manically depressed lives on in Roy Smiles' play Ying Tong A Walk With The Goons.
Sydney Theatre Company's impressive production, here for a brief visit at Her Majesty's Theatre is a great deal of fun as well as a timely reminder that the balance of life shifts in remarkable ways; from the depths of emotional instability imagining humor reigns supreme some times.
So much about the production is light hearted and silly because it draws on some masterly comedy created at the time of a great common need to laugh, to poke one in the face of every Grand-Poo-Bar and Major General. The imposing and excellently constructed set design by Michael Scott-Mitchell deserves praise as it heavily bears down on a shell shocked and fragile Spike Milligan; Geoff Kelso does a fine job as Spike, capturing Milligan's scattered personality with simple adjustments to his well honed comedic skills it's a pleasure to watch, as undesirable as the predicament is.
Milligan was haunted by demons, and although Smiles' play has us with Spike incarcerated fleeing them, we never get far beyond the comedic defenses Spike used to avoid facing those demons; this isn't a problem. The play offers an essence of Milligan as much as it is of the other Goons. Their essence, the magic of the comedy they created is well captured here and ultimately the play focuses on friendship, loyalty and the great wobbliness of existence with an emotional disorder. While Spike is powerless he is funny.
The Adelaide production has lost some of the original set, a platform stage which would obviously have provided more theatricality to the production, however this sparse set with it's thick walls, arches and tiles fronted by the black innards of the BBC Radio Studio (for example) really adds to the massive crush of war, depression and delirium experienced by the central character, while the fairly mad ensemble of actors make it all seem like a lark one minute and Harry Secombe (played wonderfully well by David James) manages to swell up over the bullets he dodged and the war he fought in defensive retaliation to a pathetic Spike straight jacketed and sorry for his lot in the world.
A show worth getting out and seeing while it is here. Expect this walk with the Goons to leave you with a smile on your face.
David Jobling
Adelaide Festival Centre's
CentreStage program
presents
Sydney Theatre Company's
Ying Tong - A Walk with the Goons
Re-live the hilarity of The Goon Show when four of Australia's foremost actor-comedians team up to present Ying Tong - A Walk With The Goons, part of Adelaide Festival Centre's CentreStage program, from 5 - 18 November at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Smiles perfectly captures the inspired comic lunacy; this is a marvellous production of a hugely entertaining play. The Sunday Telegraph
Written by Roy Smiles, this brilliant new work of joy, sadness and ingenuity is sure to delight both Goons fans and newcomers to the comedic genius of Spike Milligan, whose legacy can be seen in generations of British comedy from Monty Python to Little Britain.
Ying Tong is a tribute to an exceptionally talented but troubled man who created one of the best-loved comedy series of our time. Milligan, much-loved in Australia, has been dubbed The Godfather of Modern Comedy and voted the funniest person of the millennium in a BBC poll. Spike Milligan wrote the one-act play The Bed-Sitting Room, which premiered at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. It was adapted to a longer play, which made its debut at the Mermaid Theatre, London.
Ying Tong shows Milligan at the height of his success, under pressure to deliver a new Goon Show script. He suffers a nervous breakdown and has to be hospitalised.
The audience is transported into his crazy world and witnesses his struggle to regain mental equilibrium. There are flashbacks to Milligan's youth, early career and experiences in World War II. His fantasies are peopled by Adolf Hitler, leprechauns, dispassionate hospital staff and famous Goon Show characters such as Eccles, Bluebottle and Neddie - all written in the trademark eccentric and unconventional Milligan style.
Writer Roy Smiles describes his close affinity with the plays' subject matter:
The Goons were the sound of my childhood. All my uncles and aunties used to do Bluebottle and Eccles impressions. My older brother has all the records and scripts. Of course, a lot of the Beatles humour was based on them. If you watch A Hard Day's Night Lennon is doing Goonish voices all the time. So you couldn't avoid their influence growing up in 60s Britain. Certainly Monty Python wouldn't have existed without them.
Some of Australia's best known actor/comedians play The Goons: Jonathan Biggins, John Hannan, David James and Geoff Kelso.
Goons lovers will find a sensitively wrought and deftly played exploration of a much-missed comic team and the extraordinary gifts of an exceptional man's wounded mind. Sydney Morning Herald
Ying Tong - A Walk With The Goons
Director: Richard Cottrell, Designer: Michael Scott Mitchell
Her Majesty's Theatre
5 - 8, 12 -15, 19 - 22 November, 8pm
8, 15, 22 November, 2pm
11 & 18 November, 11am
Premium $65, Adults $60, Concession $50, Students $25, Season Pass (4 AFC Presents Shows): $50,
Adults $45 Concession Groups (6 ) $50
Bookings: BASS on 131 246 or online at bass.net.au
The Great Sea-Goon, may his carcass smile, as I'm sure his spirit would, somewhat confusedly imagined the drying caterpillar in the puddle. "I wasn't expecting the rain", he cried, and so on so long as you count two knees. Yes, the surreal comedy of the manically depressed lives on in Roy Smiles' play Ying Tong A Walk With The Goons.
Sydney Theatre Company's impressive production, here for a brief visit at Her Majesty's Theatre is a great deal of fun as well as a timely reminder that the balance of life shifts in remarkable ways; from the depths of emotional instability imagining humor reigns supreme some times.
So much about the production is light hearted and silly because it draws on some masterly comedy created at the time of a great common need to laugh, to poke one in the face of every Grand-Poo-Bar and Major General. The imposing and excellently constructed set design by Michael Scott-Mitchell deserves praise as it heavily bears down on a shell shocked and fragile Spike Milligan; Geoff Kelso does a fine job as Spike, capturing Milligan's scattered personality with simple adjustments to his well honed comedic skills it's a pleasure to watch, as undesirable as the predicament is.
Milligan was haunted by demons, and although Smiles' play has us with Spike incarcerated fleeing them, we never get far beyond the comedic defenses Spike used to avoid facing those demons; this isn't a problem. The play offers an essence of Milligan as much as it is of the other Goons. Their essence, the magic of the comedy they created is well captured here and ultimately the play focuses on friendship, loyalty and the great wobbliness of existence with an emotional disorder. While Spike is powerless he is funny.
The Adelaide production has lost some of the original set, a platform stage which would obviously have provided more theatricality to the production, however this sparse set with it's thick walls, arches and tiles fronted by the black innards of the BBC Radio Studio (for example) really adds to the massive crush of war, depression and delirium experienced by the central character, while the fairly mad ensemble of actors make it all seem like a lark one minute and Harry Secombe (played wonderfully well by David James) manages to swell up over the bullets he dodged and the war he fought in defensive retaliation to a pathetic Spike straight jacketed and sorry for his lot in the world.
A show worth getting out and seeing while it is here. Expect this walk with the Goons to leave you with a smile on your face.
David Jobling
Adelaide Festival Centre's
CentreStage program
presents
Sydney Theatre Company's
Ying Tong - A Walk with the Goons
Re-live the hilarity of The Goon Show when four of Australia's foremost actor-comedians team up to present Ying Tong - A Walk With The Goons, part of Adelaide Festival Centre's CentreStage program, from 5 - 18 November at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Smiles perfectly captures the inspired comic lunacy; this is a marvellous production of a hugely entertaining play. The Sunday Telegraph
Written by Roy Smiles, this brilliant new work of joy, sadness and ingenuity is sure to delight both Goons fans and newcomers to the comedic genius of Spike Milligan, whose legacy can be seen in generations of British comedy from Monty Python to Little Britain.
Ying Tong is a tribute to an exceptionally talented but troubled man who created one of the best-loved comedy series of our time. Milligan, much-loved in Australia, has been dubbed The Godfather of Modern Comedy and voted the funniest person of the millennium in a BBC poll. Spike Milligan wrote the one-act play The Bed-Sitting Room, which premiered at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. It was adapted to a longer play, which made its debut at the Mermaid Theatre, London.
Ying Tong shows Milligan at the height of his success, under pressure to deliver a new Goon Show script. He suffers a nervous breakdown and has to be hospitalised.
The audience is transported into his crazy world and witnesses his struggle to regain mental equilibrium. There are flashbacks to Milligan's youth, early career and experiences in World War II. His fantasies are peopled by Adolf Hitler, leprechauns, dispassionate hospital staff and famous Goon Show characters such as Eccles, Bluebottle and Neddie - all written in the trademark eccentric and unconventional Milligan style.
Writer Roy Smiles describes his close affinity with the plays' subject matter:
The Goons were the sound of my childhood. All my uncles and aunties used to do Bluebottle and Eccles impressions. My older brother has all the records and scripts. Of course, a lot of the Beatles humour was based on them. If you watch A Hard Day's Night Lennon is doing Goonish voices all the time. So you couldn't avoid their influence growing up in 60s Britain. Certainly Monty Python wouldn't have existed without them.
Some of Australia's best known actor/comedians play The Goons: Jonathan Biggins, John Hannan, David James and Geoff Kelso.
Goons lovers will find a sensitively wrought and deftly played exploration of a much-missed comic team and the extraordinary gifts of an exceptional man's wounded mind. Sydney Morning Herald
Ying Tong - A Walk With The Goons
Director: Richard Cottrell, Designer: Michael Scott Mitchell
Her Majesty's Theatre
5 - 8, 12 -15, 19 - 22 November, 8pm
8, 15, 22 November, 2pm
11 & 18 November, 11am
Premium $65, Adults $60, Concession $50, Students $25, Season Pass (4 AFC Presents Shows): $50,
Adults $45 Concession Groups (6 ) $50
Bookings: BASS on 131 246 or online at bass.net.au
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