My theatre-reviewing life is now clearly divided into two parts. BSGS and ASGS - Before seeing Garry Starr and After seeing Garry Starr.
From now on, any one-man comedy show I watch will be measured against the Garry Starr bar, and believe me that bar is now incredibly high.
The premise of Garry Starr Performs Everything is simple, but the execution is anything but. Over the course of one hour, Damien Warren-Smith’s alter ego, the vain, disgraced actor Garry Starr, takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of absurdist comedy, jumping from “Shakespearean” monologues delivered at such speed that only the occasional word (codpiece for example) can actually be made out, to near-naked ballet.
From melodrama to burlesque, not to mention Butoh (Japanese Dance Theatre), mask, romantic comedy and musical theatre, often dressed in little more than a Tudor ruff, a g-string and some glittery pink nipple tassels, the egocentric Garry takes his audience on a wild ride through the genres in his mission to save theatre from extinction.
This is not a show for a shy, retiring type of audience, there is no escaping the audience participation, from throwing grapes into Garry’s mouth to sharing some cold spaghetti, reading scripts to standing on stage hitting a near-naked man with a pool noodle, the audience is dragged into the show throughout.
