On the Stage

MARY JORDAN

THE revue is a particularly English form of entertainment which, for over a century, was to remain a staple of the London theatrical scene. The short sketches and songs first produced by Charles Cochran in 1893 were, over time, to evolve into the witty, sophisticated lyrics of Flanders and Swann, and the waspish satire of Beyond the Fringe.

In our own country, the mercurial Adam Leslie — remembered for his skit on The Ladies of Rosebank — Leon Gluckman and the Tracey brothers who created Wait a Minim, and the acerbic Robert Kirby continued in the use of those same skills: a mercilessly accurate and wickedly funny tweaking of conventional attitudes.

Then, in 1985, Kevin Feather and Malcolm Terrey collaborated on Jo’burg Follies, a two-hour send-up of South African figures in every field, which became an annual fixture for Pieter Toerien.

Now, in SPOOF FULL OF SUGAR, showing at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton until December 31, Terrey gives recognisable hits from well-known musicals a thoroughly modernist thrashing. The effect is hilarious.

Terrey is a devastatingly acute observer of adults behaving badly.

He is aware of those flaws that fascinate and understands those ambitious people who tear one another apart in gestures of playfulness or boredom.

Here, in a mocking and dismembering that unpicks our ongoing obsession with the cult of celebrity and our skewed value systems, he conveys the eccentricity of being human.

Part of the fun lies in recognising the musical numbers and then listening to Terrey’s splendidly startling reworking of the lyrics. Brandon Auret, Pieter Bosch Botha, Dianne Simpson and Ntsepa Pitjeng perform with vocal virtuosity and disarming gusto.

Each has an individual compelling moment — Cutting it Short, Rent and Barnyard Blues are really very clever — and the company’s Warped by Time is a show stopper.

On keyboards, Dawid Boverhoff is quite superb.

All the way through, you will surely feel that slow gurgle in the base of the diaphragm which recognises truth in laughter: and laugh you surely will, at the world of the living and our irritating conceits.