IN THE BEGINNING. To 3 April.

Tour

IN THE BEGINNING
devised by Trio Con Brio

Trio Con Brio Tour to 3 April 2004
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 March at Warwick Arts Centre

Spaghetti commedia higher on theatre carbohydrates than protein innovation.London has two on the South Bank and in Brent, so why shouldn't Bergamo have at least one: a National Theatre, that is? Even if it consists of three brothers who owe more to the Marxs than to Goldoni or Pirandello - though comic business struts its stuff, and things aren't what they might seem.

Fun this trio can be. Brio they certainly bring. Yet it may be the coincidence that their mid-point offer of pizza, breadsticks and wine to the audience came the night after I saw the equally Italian-sounding Cartoon de Salvo serving tea and cakes during their Meat & Two Veg, but there seems an innovation-deficiency here.

Battersea Arts Centre's touring programme This Way Up's intended to be Bursting with fresh new theatre'. This retelling of the Adam and Eve story (Noah's ark is rejected by these cliché Italians out of Mediterranean respect for clichéd Inglese sensitivities about climate) by three people and a few props seems bursting with derivation. From the National Theatre of Brent's epics, and, OK, from the much-hallowed commedia dell'arte, but it's hard to see what the amiable threesome bring by way of innovation.

How much anyone enjoys In The Beginning is likely to depend on a taste for clowning and fake make-dos plus apparent ad libs. And on expectations of theatre. Coming from a severe tradition of proper drama, someone might find furiously funny anarchy. Coming from the Marx brothers and Patrick Barlow, Brent NT supremo, it's more likely a sense of familiarity though without the moments of theatrical wonder Barlow creates.

The joke here remains the desperate over-confidence with which the show's kept on the road an umbrella ringed with doughnuts for the all-important Eden tree and its fruit. Plus the occasional interplay with each other and the audience though nothing like the massed audience participation the NTOBrent regularly calls for.

A test-case: if you find a man in busty drag, with blonde wig and handbag spectacularly funny, you'll love Eve. Or you'll hate a parody of the female form, flagrantly demeaning to women. Or, it could seem merely wearisome.

Pipi Carluccio: Stuart Goldsmith
Pepe Carluccio: Nick Tigg
Popo Carluccio: Nick Cavaliere

Director: Gareth Brierley

2004-03-08 12:07:03