Review by Adam Casey
60 minutes | Comedy, Musical | Mature
I begin this review with both a confession and a word of warning. As I was chatting with my fellow Fringe enthusiasts about the plays we were going to review, I mentioned that I was going to see what I described as “some Australian children’s’ act”. Indeed, the play’s description reads, “Join famed Australian children’s entertainers HOOTENANNY! on the final stop of their world tour”. My colleagues quickly pointed out that the play comes from Ottawa and is intended for mature audiences. As such, I confess that I need to make a point to read things more carefully. Let this story serve as a warning to anyone as unobservant as I am: this might not be a play you wish to take small children to see.
While a legitimate children’s act might have been fun, I am thankful that I got to see HOOTENANNY! instead. The play presents itself as a performance for children, and it’s full of charming songs that have a delightful veneer of childhood innocence, but these songs invariable contain some rather suggestive themes that accompany the otherwise juvenile subject matter. Throughout the show, you learn the backstory of the characters, and their shared history shapes their performance more and more as the show progresses. This backstory involves the sorts of excess that you would expect from famous musicians – if you get a kick out of reading about Justin Beiber’s various misadventures, then you should feel right at home watching HOOTENANNY!
The play succeeds in its goal to merge childish enthusiasm with adult themes. It’s not as though the audience is bombarded with vulgarity, but the subject matter can get surprisingly dark (I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard at a joke about prenuptial agreements). The juxtaposition of adult themes and childish aesthetics is the source of many of the play’s jokes and – for the most part – they work quite well.
There were a few technical glitches that marred the multimedia portions of the show, but I suspect they will be ironed out for future performances. While these issues were distracting, they certainly would not prevent me from recommending this show. HOOTENANNY! is a fine way to spend an hour—it’s silly but still manages to be smart and dark while still being a lot of fun.
HOOTENANNY! is playing at the Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly) on Saturday, June 20 at 7:30pm; Sunday, June 20 at 5:30pm, Wednesday, June 24 at 6:00pm; Friday, June 26 at 9:00pm; and Sunday, June 28 at 3:30pm. Tickets are $12.
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