Ich Nibber Dibber, Mathouse Theatre, Beckett Theatre, Saturday September 22nd 2018
For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights. Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases. I write for my memories of what I have seen, and is more of a stream of consciousness.
Entering the Beckett Theatre, the lighting is focused upon the audience, while the stage area is blacked out. If you put your programme up to cover the lights blazing in your eyes, you can see a white curtain or sheet covering something.
The house lights thankfully dim as the lights shine on and off upon the stage area to reveal three women suspended in space. They look similar to a religious painting of angels floating. The middle lady appears to be leaning forward. I am fascinated if they are hanging or sitting. The lighting wavers as the music plays.
The music does not stop for the entire show, though it does grow louder on at least two occasions. Sometimes the music muffles their dialogue that comes thick and fast at times. The diction at times is poor.
The "post" group consists from audience left to right: Natalie Rose, Mish Grigor and Zoe Coombs Marr. They are a very funny group of women who reminded me of the three women singers suspended from "Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musicial".
The banter comes thick and fast. The mood is set quickly within ten seconds. The "f" and "c" bomb words come within the first minute. Most, not all of the audience lap up the humour. Pockets of the theatre were very quiet.
The three women discuss many topics, but focus a lot on defecating or pooing. There is a lot of information about masturbation. Different techniques and personal histories are revealed about fingering.
There is much discussion about giving birth and whether or not women have a bowel motion during or after giving birth.
There are jokes about the pronunciation of "says". They discuss growing up and different areas.
Age is discussed. Time seems to elapse during the production, and the three women become these older people that they were laughing at earlier.
Yes, it is very funny but becomes repetitive. Less is more. The show could have been cut by 15-20 minutes and made more of an impact with the audience begging for more.
They could have made more of the fingering stories if they knew the origins of the word "friggging". They could have had a debate about whether they were being fingered or frigged etc. They could even have discussed the misuse of the word "frigging" and linked it to their theme of age. Sadly this was a lost opportunity. They could also have debated about whether men "frig" or masturbate. They could also have debated the differences between "fucking" and "frigging" that, I know these talented women would have made very funny.
We were witnesses to their inner sanctum of humour and story telling. No, we were more like voyeurs, or like the camera they discussed from their tapes.
"Ich Nibber Dibber" was worth seeing, but seemed more of the Melbourne International Arts Festival fare rather than subscription to the Malthouse Theatre season. I would not call it challenging, but good fun.
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