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Figs In Wigs
Birmingham Rep Door
**** The Rep Door
continues its run of Thursday night Cabaret XXL slots with the highly
talented, highly original and highly colourful
Figs In Wigs. It’s hard to put them into any category and I am sure they work hard to stay outside of the box, yet well in the spotlight. Surreal, thoughtful, linguistic, artistic, the
five a side ladies only team of Rachel Gammon, Suzanna Hurst, Sarah
Moore, Rachel Porter and Alice Roots, connect a whole range of clever
ideas together and wrap it all up in mad outfits and glittery trainers. Their current show introduces a set of
performance scenes all with a common theme of Social Media and our
obsession with Mobile phones. We have a new genre of dance, a lecture on
art, the Figs In Wigs band, and alternative comedy rebranded as anatomy
to name a few. There are times when you wait for them to sort
their props out or change costume but never once does it feel awkward or
not planned even if it is not. In fact, if there are any mistakes no one
would know as the organised chaos has you thinking, watching and
listening to appreciate every finely tuned nuance. There are times you laugh and have not got a clue
why it’s funny and that’s the beauty of the whole performance; it just
finds your funny bone without them looking for it. A good example of that is their deconstruction
comedy and the act of the stand-up routine. They smartly use the
default language that is used to make up of a million other gags and
then develop a transition into a series of nonsensical children’s jokes
that become hilarious, especially in the way the girls finally deliver
them. In fact, while there is an element of student
humour about much the performance the writing is very clever and they
never miss a beat in the quite complex delivery. The irony is that although they may be parodying
the art world or experimental indie bands you could quite easily put
them into each of their scene settings and they would be passed off as
the real thing. So is it art, is it comedy, is it a bird, or
birds, it’s definitely not plain. You come away having enjoyed the
experience and the odd thing is you are not quite sure why. Guess that’s
Figs In Wigs. Jeff Grant 18-02-16
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