A tour de force of comedic timing which will have you in stitches!
Presented by: Gavin Robertson & Nicholas Collett in association with Virtually Creative
Reviewed: 17 February, 2023
The great Bob Hope once said that timing was the essence of comedy. Brilliant timing was the essence of Done to Death by Jove! tonight and the audience loved it. The rapport between Gavin Robertson and Nicholas Collett was clear to see as they paid homage to the fictional detectives of classic murder mysteries – Holmes and Watson, Miss Marple and Poirot – via a cleverly devised play-within-a-play where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
The mood was set as one entered the theatre with incidental music including the theme from the television series Midsomer Murders. As ‘the show must go on’, Sir Gavin of Robertson and Sir Nicholas of Collett, two stalwarts of the British theatre, were forced to play all six roles when the van carrying the other four actors, and the set, had broken down.
Robertson held the audience’s attention, even when he broke out of character and addressed them directly. A slight, shy smile, a look of exasperation and the range of accents he produced, especially for Poirot and a supposed ‘slip’ into Michael Caine, impressed me.
Collett also showed his prowess with accents when, after being taken to task by his partner over the accent he had chosen to use, Collett produced a wonderful Welsh accent for Dr Jones. When Collett transformed from Dr Watson, wearing a suit and bowler hat, to Dr Emrys Jones, head of the health clinic, in a white coat that came down over his hands – no doubt because the usual actor was apparently 6’4”.
Having been associated with theatre productions over many years, I particularly enjoyed the moments of backstage mayhem such as when the matron’s costume was missing or when Sir Gavin, who knew nothing about how the sound system worked, managed to change the sequence, which in turn delivered a veritable Old McDonald’s farm of inappropriate sound cues, to the delight of the audience.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Venue: Main Theatre at Kryztoff at the Goodwood Theatre
Season: 17 – 26 February, 2023 (various times)
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: From $16.00
Bookings: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/done-to-death-by-jove-af2023#performanceId=90551
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