By Alanta Colley
Noise Adventure is a hallucinogenic cocktail of wicked beats, neon face paint, surreal streams of consciousness and tiny little pom poms.
Melbourne- based comic and composer Kate Dehnert channels Bowie, the Mighty Boosh, and a little bit of Bow Peep as she rocks out with her frock out to a cacophony of electro dance wiggety wiggety noises – if that is what the kids are calling it these days.
The audience holds on for dear life as we barrel down the rabbit hole into the strange world of Dehnert’s inner associations. Dehnert occupies a niche market of songs about salmon and trampolines, Rube Goldberg-esque house-hold accidents, obscure DJs and emotional breakdowns in the work place. Dehnert slips seamlessly between mundanity and fantasy, and innocence and mayhem. Anything is possible. There’s no time for conventional punch lines here. This is a true work of unique brilliance.
The songs are great and only surpassed by the soliloquies. Dehnert plays out the diary of an Arts student sent on a one way ticket to Mars, and all the unforeseen consequences that this affords. A lot more happened but I was too busy laughing to take proper notes.
Dehnert is a messiah of musical mania. A purveyor of unpredictability. Her energy throughout this performance is explosive. Flustered and frantic Dehnert gives the impression she’s almost a passenger to the craziness along with us. There’s nothing else that approaches this show at the Festival. Weird and thoroughly wonderful are just the starting point. This show is cheaper than acid and has fewer of the long term side effects. This review doesn’t do it justice. You’ll just have to go and experience the aural psychedelic adventure on your own.
Noise Adventure is on at The Duke of Wellington Hotel until April 7
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/noise-adventure-kate-dehnert