For half an hour before the play starts the audience can settle in and listen to a rare musical experience. Not only is the set from country folk musician Sam Newton different every night, but it is delivered without any amplification. With original songs like Gadagal Falls, Newton is a little reminiscent of Neil Young but with his own uniquely Australian voice and storytelling. Then after entertaining on his own he blends into the central part of the show.
The play itself, A Man Walks Into A Bar is written with fast paced one-liners and delivered with powerful and punchy two-handers. Although a duel of comedians sometimes absurdist sometimes smart sometimes corny, the fast paced entertaining and intelligent show can at times be erudite interwoven with funny. These are not the kind of belly laughs that erupt at stand up comedy. A Man Walks Into A Bar is a clever colloquy that although sometimes surreal also reaches out and touches truth.
Each Nina Marsh and Chris Yaacoubian balance the act with volume and gesture and timing and work the intimate space from the elevated platform into the laps of the audience. There is a moment of audience participation. And a moment of nostalgia. And then the bubbles in the glass resume. The story muddles and mixes and shakes into the crescendo as the cocktail comes spilling over us. Two comedians walk into a bar, and with Sam Newton, a play by David Geary, original music by director Andrew Beban, entertain the on-the-edge-of-their-chairs audience for the night.
Playing at Blood Moon Theatre World Bar until May 7, A Man Walks Into A Bar is part of our distinctively original Sydney theatre scene.
