You never quite know what to expect from a Brynley Stent show. She has fast become a master at a unique blend of absurdist, character comedy, notable for pushing already bizarre concepts to their extremes. Escape from Gloriavale, about an escaped member of the cult, involved a mass orgy with the cast of Shortland Street. Sex education parody Why Does This Feel So Good? saw a kindly giraffe get decapitated.
So what to expect then from a show called Filthy Little Goblin? Not to be cliché, but really expect the unexpected. Stent has compiled a varied mix of sketches that take the Basement's studio theatre to some dark and perverse places, each working with a twisted sense of humour that delivers one of the festival's most surprising but ingenious shows.
One thing you shouldn't expect though is for this to focus on a single character, ala the ever-popular Providence Gratitude. While Stent wears the same pair of lederhosen throughout the show, she moves swiftly between an ensemble of unhinged characters. There's a woman who has an intense encounter with a self-checkout machine, another put on the spot at a restaurant, and one picks a fight over a birthday present.
Stent gives each character her all, never once breaking and allowing the audience to settle into this wild ride. Being a sketch show, there is going to be a variation in quality between them. Most stick the landing, but a few are a little too long to succeed – namely a mimed Disney parody that doesn't really go anywhere.
Yet you have to applaud Stent for her glorious imagination, and for holding such a disparate show together. The two best sketches thankfully are returned to in brilliant ways throughout the show, with multiple elements coming together in the final moment for a tight finish.
