The Romatic Misadventures of a Perth Girl Looking for Love ****

‘The Romantic Misadventures of a Perth Girl Looking for Love’ is the first in a series of shows presented by Mondo di Corpo Theatre Productions at the East Amphitheatre, 488 Beaufort Street, North Perth. This show finishes on the 24^th February.

As the company name suggests it is the ‘world of the body’, all of the shows will explore mime, dance, acrobatics etc. The company’s idea is to encourage newcomers with talent.

Marisa Garreffa wrote this light-hearted show, in the form of a narrated adult pantomime. To the strains of beautiful cello playing (Belinda Porte), the Princess (Marisa) is cast out into the desert and tied to an old tree stump. There she stays for a very long time. The thing that she misses most is the affections of a young man, any young man – in fact any man whatsoever! She tries, with the help of her friend (Susie Finch), a multitude of very funny and original wiles, suffers from various sand tortures and inevitably loses every beau to her friend. Shane Adamczak plays a wonderful variety of men.

Under the direction of Laura Motherway (who was also the narrator) every ounce of humour was achieved. I have seen Marisa sing, dance and do acrobatics, but this is the first time I have seen her do comedy and it was brilliant. Along with Shane, who has an amazing control over his lithe body, the show flowed smoothly and hilariously for the full 90 minutes.

With a narrated story, the narrative must be well honed to have minimal extra text – this story needed a small amount of editing. The actors must set themselves up for the punch line which is about to be read – at this the cast were excellent. Thirdly, the narrator who is creating all of the voices and characters must be well tuned in. Somewhere in this section I felt that there was something lacking which didn’t quite live up to the energetic and side-splitting performances by the actors.

The choice of music and the tricky editing and control (Erin Clarke) was spot-on. Great lighting (Todd Walsh) from a limited resource.

A good fun-filled, slightly bawdy show for adults. Everyone will recognise a few of the situations and squirm. Original and most enjoyable.