AUTOAUTO! To 4 May.
AUTOAUTO!
Created by Christopher von Richthofen and Stefan Gwildis.
Riverside Studios (Studio 2) To 4 May 2008.
Wed-Fri;Sun 8pm Sat 3pm & 9pm.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 8237 1111.
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 April.
Smashing time down at the Riverside.
As plays get shorter, some offering under an hour all-in, acts that might once have been 8 or 13 minute on a variety bill, take up a whole show. So Christopher von Richthofen and Rolf Clausen with their mix of music and mutilation - the latter performed, thankfully, on the body not of a scantily-clad lady assistant but a smoke-filled old car.
Their publicity promised a Vauxhall Astra but on Sunday an understudy performed, in the shape of a blue Peugeot (a suitably named vehicle for killing; the first soldier shot dead in World War I was a Corporal Andre Peugeot). Von Richthofen and Clausen throw in some patter, including the usual ingratiating insults about London, but they’re merely breathing spaces between assaults on the car.
These follow a dramatic shape, starting with harmless percussion noises to which the human performers capably add established melodies (tuning-up on Bach before turning to the motor). It’s good-humoured, though there’s the unpleasant undercurrent of the course bullying takes: beginning by apparently asking for help (don’t mind if we get a rhythm by slapping you about a bit?), going on to minor damage, the odd dent and sandpapering, before putting the mallet in.
The pair have a carefree manner as they find each body-part’s percussive quality; panels of different sizes, slamming doors, rattling door-handles, a scratching wiper-blade, beating radio-aerial.
And windows, most ending up smashed as the percussive function switches from underlying rhythms to punctuating thumps. It’s here the heavy equipment comes in and the music’s handed over completely to the soundtrack that’s helped more discreetly before.
Not since Stanley Kubrick had Malcolm McDowell Singin’ in the Rain to the rape in A Clockwork Orange has a happy tune been given such a violent purpose. Auto Auto uses Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky always could write a thumping good tune) as the mallets finally put paid to the Peugeot’s residual value.
Yet it’s still standing at the end, wheels undamaged. If this is your idea of a night’s entertainment, then you’ll be entertained for 80 minutes. Meanwhile, is anyone planning a gala night with a bendy-bus?
Cast: Christopher von Richthofen, Rolf Clausen, L 135 OUG.
2008-04-17 09:41:31