ZazU Part 1: The Beginning
It is really difficult to describe or even make sense of ZazU. The group have created a surreal comedy set in a truly bizarre dystopian world. A series of sketches takes you on a romp through a day in the life of this country culminating in the grand final concert by the hero superstar of this little nation. You meet the various families and people who inhabit the land and see everything they deal with. The culture is horrifying, their child policies totally disturbing, their police law breaking imbeciles, and it is just utterly brilliant. You just can’t stop cackling throughout.
The dancing interludes were delightful (I want one of those wigs) and the sheer range of characters the quartet of actors played was impressing as they flitted from scene to scene in this high tempo show. Amazing it wasn’t just uncontrollable laughter I felt, they made me feel slightly sorry for a sheet of paper (although that might have just been me) and I am desperate to get a copy of the book from the book discussion group. Who wouldn’t want to read a book where the main protagonist is a female warrior accountant? If a book of this nature doesn’t exist someone should definitely write it.
My one minor criticism is the actors though talented where guilty of corpsing and giggling on occasion, just enough to be noticeable approaching the end. This sadly did detract slightly from this rollercoaster of laughs whose momentum and flow was slightly broken when this happened. Hopefully better control will come with time.
But overall it is 75 minutes of joy, clever and witty, a journey of amusing discovery in an insane invented land. I can’t believe this is just Part 1: The Beginning because to be honest I felt this whole thing was pretty well contained in this one show. I feel this review might make more sense of a show then there really was. This show just wasn’t created to have a logical plot and is really more of a series of loosely connected anecdotes. I am intrigued to discover where we will be taken next time in this trilogy. But so long as there are more surreal tales in a similar vein I have no doubt we are in for a treat…