By Lisa Clark
It’s hard to believe that Annie and Lena have been working as a sketch comedy team for only two years. Their debut at Melbourne Fringe in 2019 felt like they’d been doing it for years. It was an introduction and exploration of their talents, whereas in This is Our show they are more assured in where their strengths lay and how their relationship works on stage.
A lot of water has run under the bridge since Fringe 2019 and they have reworked the whole show, dropping the TV theme (who’s watching TV these days?) while keeping some of the best sketches. This is Our Show is themed around mental illness which appears to be inspired by Lena’s adult diagnosis of ADHD. The theme brings extra poignancy to some of their best sketches such as embarrassing Boomer Mum giving a drunken speech at her daughter’s graduation from Women’s Studies and their take on Homer’s soul sucking Sirens.
The new sketch highlights this year include Bogan farmers talking about their love of “digging holes”, the weird awkwardness of bra fittings, a chirpy song about accidentally running over your pets and the “Red Flag Twist” a song and dance number about dating dodgy men. The other joy was just the in between banter between the two. Having fun on stage, despite some serious technical issues (their first night in a new space) and their impro skills shone through as they quipped about things going wrong. I also loved them bringing out the “Funny or Depressing?” score board, where the audience gets to vote and see previous votes. It would’ve been nice to have this up the back through the whole show and have a running tally of selected sketches.
It’s great to see women teaming up into double acts and killing it. Annie is dark and sardonic trying desperately to keep the show on track while Lena is the bumbling, chirpy one they play many different roles well, but it is when they are being themselves that they really shine. Looking forward to more from these two.
This Is Our Show has finished it’s run