Enter the Circus

Step right up ladies and gentlemen! Don’t be shy! Murder, circus freaks and good old burlesque humor abound! So it goes in Exit 2nd Banana, the melodramatic, Choose Your Own Adventure escapade from East West Theatre and local co-writer and director David Foote.

If you’re a fan of puns, audience participation and bombastic hamming it up then you’ll be delighted to watch Exit 2nd Banana. Which reminds me: are there any Rocky and Bullwinkle fans still out there? (And I don’t mean the ill-fated 2000 film.) Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman? Dudley Doo-right? Moose and squirrel? Anyone? If you know a DVD shop in Shanghai where I can get a copy I would be in your debt forever.

Anyway, yeah, this one’s for you.

Those looking to delve the depths of the human psyche or ruminate on existential crises brought on by contemporary society might want to wait until East West Theater’s next production…

Through three decisions made by the audience, two of which hold the lives of the characters in the balance, the action of the play unfolds in one of eight possible endings. While there’s a script for how things should go generally in each contingency, it’s clear the actors have a lot of leeway into how they want to develop the scenes that get them there. Everyone on stage radiates with a giddy, nervous energy.

Josh Steinhouse’s straight-man detective Jack Valentine has a fine time embellishing during his long-winded noir-film soliloquies. Mark Butler’s Euphemia the Bearded Lady can’t help but smash through the fourth wall with his manboobs and flirt with half of the audience. James Reynolds’s whining Lobsterboy Eunice Schill seems to do everything he could to prove annoying to both us and the characters on stage. (The decision to kill him was a no brainer.) Even Fern Lim as the Announcer, whose words are clearly the most scripted, was full of a captivating excitement that was more than just opening night jitters. And all this excitement can't help but prove contagious.

Of course, there were some moments of the play that proved to be more groan worthy than others. Robin Silver and Emily Feist’s Siamese twins Myrna Schill and Mina Bunko do a prolonged two-man act straight out of a Coney Island sideshow circa 1902 that could use a few pointers from Abbot and Costello. Amanda Daniels goes far as Ms Ginger Bunderberg in her desperation for Jack Valentine, but not far enough to make the incongruity stick. Alessandra Busto’s Madame D’Gyp could be far more flustered as her psychic powers are debunked. Still, every night is technically a new night for this play, and who knows, maybe the next show will let different actors shine.

So there you have it. Will this play be the recipient of your attention and your hard earned Reminbi? Or will you decide to stay at home with a DVD instead? The choice is up to you.

East West Theatre presents Exit 2nd Banana. June 20 – 23. 8pm. RMB 150 (RMB 100 pre-sale).  Strictly Designers United at Wharf 1846, Building 3, 601 Waima Lu near Maojiayuan Lu (near The Cool Docks), 135 6410 2955, [email protected]