The Business... As Usual, OCt 6, 1999

by The Business 

At La Mama at Carlton Courthouse until October 16, 1999

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The clowns are in government. So, what's new? It sounds like a post-election headline. However, in The Business... As Usual, it is really clowns who are running the country. The lunatics have finally taken over the asylum and it is really funny.

Kate Kantor, Clare Bartholomew and Penny Baron are the three members of The Business who are something like a Marx Brothers trio. except that they are women in bad suits and moustaches.

They are directed in the style of the French clown by John Bolton – a clown extraordinaire hmself. This is a charming political satire in which the three stumble and grumble, grimace and gambol on a stage which is empty apart from a few strategic pieces of furniture.

In fact, the furniture is very animated. Three swivel chairs that accompany three little bureaucratic desks,are the vehicle for a chair ballet danced to the Flower Duet from Lakme. A large, old kitchen cabinet, Built by David Murphy, is virtually a fourth character.

It beeps and flashes green lights, plays music, interrupts the petty bureaucrats' meeting, delivers the mail as well as morning and afternoon tea to the delight of the audience.

The mail features prominently in the story. Innumerable letters, which are stamped ominously with the word "WARNING", magically appear inside the cabinet. On opening, their bad news is accompanied by horror movie music.

These cowardly, incompetent pollies cheat their way into power by a simple audience gerrymander. The Prime Minister (Kate Kantor) is deceitful, bombastic and verbose. His Secretary of Defence (Penny Barton) is obsequious, nervy and bomb-happy. The Treasurer (Clare Bartholomew) is lazy, sneaky and a selfish, secretive cake-eater.

The show is riddled with plenty of comic "business" with phones, chairs, teacups, keyboards, post-it notes and a wine bottle. All three actors play instruments with great skill.

All three characters are impressed by their own position and power and are hilariously fatigued by answering the phone and opening mail. The Secretary of Defence starts a war in secret as if it was a video game.

The pay-off comes when the three are faced with the consequences of their actions. Suffice to say, they do what was recommended in the 1950's to avoid nuclear fall out: they duck and cover.

If you like physical comedy and visual humour, The Business really has the goods.

by Kate Herbert