By Lisa Clark
Promising to be a take on Trump and American politics by a Canadian Theatre Company who describe their show as “as a mixture of Monty Python, Louie CK (sic), and George Carlin working together in an interview with David Frost to unravel the enigma that is Trump”, Singles Awareness Production’s World War T disappoints on all counts. Instead what was delivered was three Aussie actors (Jon T Stark, Juliet Hindmarsh & Sophie Power) with seemingly very little sketch comedy experience, performing a mishmash of Trump related scenes that were rarely interesting, insightful or funny.
The premise appears to be that it is set 2 years after Trump has come to power and the world is in disarray with closed borders and walls up. This show is a look back at how the world came to be in this mess. They build a wall of cardboard boxes (failing to perform behind it, missing a cool Pink Floyd reference), stumble through reading a Trump-ed up Christmas poem and it all ends with the performers bashing a Trump piñata into the ground.
The (somewhat interesting) centrepiece has Jon entering wearing a white sheet and hood, there are some gasps from the audience. It really is amazing how confronting this is. The irony here is that we know inside this very white outfit is the very brown Jon, who is clearly from the Indian Subcontinent, and when he emerges from the KKK sheet he is dressed as someone from ISIS. AHA! They are the same. Not a fresh observation and sadly, not presented in a way to get laughs from the audience.
Calling these skits undergraduate is an insult to uni drama students. This was barely high school level political sketch comedy. Trump is an easy target and a gold mine of comedy for savvy political comedians. Unfortunately this lazily written show relied heavily on his verbatim words to get some rare laughs. World War T is poorly written and directed by Canadian Australian Blair Moro and the performers mostly flounder. Of the three, Juliet Hindmarsh showed some comedic promise. If they had been comedians rather than actors they might have been able to shine up the turd they’ve been saddled with, but unfortunately they just shout with great enthusiasm and throw lots of lollies at the crowd. Enthusiasm does not equal comedy and bribery will not win us over.
World War T is on at The Courthouse Hotel until September 27
https://melbournefringe.com.au/program?event/world-war-t/04513e58-82e4-40d5-b742-1d38e88caeac