illawarrastage / August 2, 2016
Dylan Horvat – Illawarra Stage – 3rd August 2016, 2:09am
In January 2015, Adam O’Brien directed a show he had written at Workshop Theatre, under his Dire Theatre Company, called “Our Neighbourhood”, a hilarious play with a message. The brilliant and successful show was then also staged at the Sydney Fringe Festival in September 2015. The year after, he decided to follow up with another self-written hilarious play with a message. Albert & Jameson: A Play with Vampires. This time around, the message was more bleak than the confronting message of Our Neighbourhood. As O’Brien says himself “We are whirling and whorling in an immensity we cannot fathom, and in a time dimension we don’t understand, with no guide, rules or structure, other than that we have made ourselves. I think that’s hilarious”. Who would have thought that would be in the director’s notes of what is possibly the most entertaining Illawarra play of the first half of 2016?
My initial concern was that I wondered how a full length play with only a cast of three could hold my attention? Especially since it features only two major characters and one minor. Our Neighbourhood had the advantage of lots of colourful, nuanced and charismatic characters, which is always a feature in a story that I love. Confident in O’Brien’s writing ability, however, I trusted that this would not be an issue. And I was right. Especially gaining more confidence given the casting of David Rienits and James Poole in the title roles and Sam Sweeting in the minor role (which turned out to be several colourful, nuanced, charismatic roles – so there goes that issue!) and the incredible response I heard from friends when they saw the show’s opening night.
The play begins with Sweeting playing a discount Vincent Price, sitting reading a book (actually a softcore erotica novel) until he addresses the audience and makes some joke having a jab at theatre critics (Sweeting looked me in the eye both times I saw the show while saying that jab, of course) and then introduces the story of Albert (Rienits) and Jameson (Poole), a duo of vampires from the 19th century who live somewhat peacefully until Albert murders a prince, gaining the violent attention from the village, forcing them to retreat into the cellar and then hibernate until November 2016 (that’s right. This play is actually set in the future. It is sci-fi) and must grow accustomed to the modern life. Hilarious results ensue, of course.
The opening set of A&J’s living room is great. A very well set up array of furniture and glasses / pictures / books for Albert to mess up to get Jameson’s attention. The opening and closing doors to the cellar were impressive and many audio clips were used for dialogue between the pair while changing or Molotov’s exploding. Act 2’s living room set up is similar, except modern-day 2016, complete with 90’s television. Blackouts were very abundant and lengthy whilst swapping between scenes. There were plenty of hysterical additions to the props department, such as Werner, a schnauzer puppet falling from the ceiling on a string.
The script was outrageously hilarious. The banter between Albert and Jameson did surprisingly keep the show fresh and energetic the entire duration. Key moments include Jameson wanting to play Go Fish but Albert thinking he means literally fishing; Albert’s take on modern vampire fiction; Jameson attempting to chat up a young maiden named Mary (Sweeting) at a nightclub; pretty much every gay joke and the main duo’s bickering about Jameson’s choices in coffin expenditures. Enormous laughs every minute and never a dull moment. From dramatic irony to tragicomedy to risqué humour to fart jokes to intelligent satirical witticisms that make you think to physical comedy brilliance, there’s plenty to laugh at for everyone.
An incredibly sad (but admittedly hilarious) circumstance happened upon the season of this show. As O’Brien let the audience know before every show; the artist formerly known as Prince was announced as dead the day before Albert and Jameson opened. Written months before this however was a scene in the A&J script in which the duo return home after Albert had fictionally murdered the famed singer in question, simply to put a punny twist on the earlier scene in which he murders an actual prince – only for him to die barely more than 24 hours before the show opened to the public.
Boasting only a cast of three, the casting was perfect. Having given numerous brilliant comedic performances to the Illawarra in the past decade (as well as dramatic), this is the best Rienits has delivered thus far. Being able to utilise his perfect delivery of silly lines with ample timing, quick twitchy body movements, animated facial expressions, he made Albert a very likeable, endlessly entertaining vamp, even in his petty and psychopathic moments. Also marking his acting magnum opus thus far in his theatrical career, James Poole perfectly contrasted Albert by giving Jameson an air of supposed sensitivity, self-importance, frustration and awkwardness (especially in the nightclub scene) and portraying them beautifully. The chemistry between the two was powerful and the show would not have been anywhere near as enjoyable without it
To each of his memorable minor roles, Sweeting utilised his perfect comic timing, deadpan humour and many side-splitting improvised lines to make him stand out every time he were on stage, whether he was the discount Vincent Price, A&J’s apartment neighbour, a young lady at a nightclub (complete with blonde wig and dress and nipple slip) or that young ladies’ father, he excellently stole the show from the leads many times. While the message of the show was about the impending doom of mankind and the uselessness of life, it was more part of the premise of the comedy as opposed to a confrontational moral memorandum.
Albert and Jameson was an original work that still managed to surpass the entertainment value of other shows on at the time that were Tony winning musicals or literature classics. A perfect comedy play, the show will thankfully be having another season this year as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival, which I hope I can also make. O’Brien will be taking over as Albert while Rienits is taking over as Jameson. Sweeting will be reprising his many roles. Show dates are 22nd, 23rdand 24th of September. It was worth seeing twice in its original season – inspiring gut busting laughs both times so I would happily look forward to a third. After Our Neighbourhood and Albert & Jameson, I also look forward to see what O’Brien will be bringing to the Illawarra next – and what celebrity he accidentally kills off (let it be Donald Trump. Because I’m sure he’s never heard anybody say that to him before)
Written by Dylan Horvat
