by Penny Baron and Brenda Waite
At La Mama at Courthouse until March 1996
Reviewer: Kate Herbert, around 24 Feb 1996
There is something that cheers the heart in a simple, honest, lovable clown duo. Penny Baron and Brenda Waite are such a pair in the very sweet show, Happy as Laundry which wins awards for a wonderful title.
The two, directed by Kate Kantor, are warm and engaging with an intense complicity between them on stage. They develop a pair of dithering, ingenuous, characters who are bound together in their routine existence. Each day they recite their "cup of tea" liturgy, sit in the same chairs, dance the same dance, play the same games, open the same dresser drawer and cupboard door.
They are a dual personality until one attempt to alter the pattern, tip the balance, escape the routine, leave the fold. It smacks of those symbiotic relationships which allow neither party breathing space.
They set up a normal world then proceed to knock it down. The piece begins lightly then gathers momentum as the relationship intensifies and their problems arise.
They are akin to Beckett's Vladimir and Estragon in their simple existential dilemma. The performances are delightful with a bold physicality and classic French clown exaggeration, repetition and quirky child-like characters.
The performances are delightful with a bold physicality and classic French clown exaggeration, repetition and quirky child-like characters. It is a simple narrative with ripples of meaning rolling out into the big pond.
By KATE HERBERT
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