‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ // Ludomyr Kemp-Mykyta
‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ was brilliant.
The team at Pummel Squad treated audiences to a delightful piece of absurdist theatre, ‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’. Co-written and performed by a company of three actors and produced by Ludomyr Kemp-Mykyta. This work merges absurdist staging with comedic dialogue and incorporates elements of opera, circus and musical theatre.
In the space of Testing Grounds, we are transformed 900 years into the future. ‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ tells the story of the 918th Beautiful Convention, where the most beautiful person is selected, and world ugliness is cured. This hilarious piece takes us through the hilarious lengths two contestants go towards in their desire to become the most beautiful person on Earth for one year and the ridiculous lengths they would go towards creating a machine that would cure world ugliness. The story is told by three brilliantly talented individuals whose charisma carried the night. ‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ juxtaposes the desire for competitive greatness over collaboration. It explores beauty through the lens of vanity and challenges our emphasis on preferencing physical beauty over the beauty of working together as a collective.
‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ was staged in the indoor space of Testing Grounds just across from Queen Victoria Market. The industrial space with sterile white walls and multicoloured office lighting was perfect for the staging of this work. The set design was simple, mostly incorporating some props and two bizarre ‘inventions’ which were the main focal point of the script. The way this performance was staged evoked many elements of absurdist theatre. The costume design and makeup artistry captured brilliantly the speculation of futurism. Hamish Gorgeous was dressed in a light blue suit adorned with several formal elements which are typically not worn together which emphasised excellently the sheer excessiveness of the misaligned approach to the contest took to beauty. The two doctors. Dr Fergus Fantastic and Dr Waldo Wonderful wore a range of amusing outfits, being introduced to us with tutus, but being known with matching Nehru-collared lab coats. Their eye makeup was a rough smoky eye that was more pronounced on the bottom lid. One thing was certain, I could not tell if they were even human. The characters appeared outside of the recognisable characteristics of today, they were completely inhuman, a clever irony commentating on the absurdity of beauty. At times, the two doctors were paraded around in the archetypical costumes you would see at a beauty parade, elements of this costuming emphasised the humorous elements of the show, namely the absurdity of the gowns that kept falling off, and the all-American flag bikinis.
The humour of the script contained a brilliant deal of comedic dialogue. The humour was very creative and pushed boundaries without relying heavily on the low brow. Short, sharp jokes, especially when unrelated to the current happening brilliantly added comedic interludes. There were examples when the jokes were drawn longer, whilst this initially was funny, one example had a joke with a rather upsetting punchline. There were times in this performance when all the actors had to do was move and the audience would laugh. ‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ contained brilliant references to earlier work, which entranced the audience and introduced them to much of the new humour they were being introduced to. The finale had the three cast members singing Pirates of Penzance’s Major General. Such an enthralling part of the play warranted a transition into an original composition.
This play is a brilliant original which modernises absurdist theatre for a contemporary audience. It is most certainly worthwhile. Its unique take on humour demonstrates the expertise of an emerging theatre company refining its skill. The incorporation of opera and musical theatre makes for a fun experience. I was delighted by this and excited for what Pummel Squad will do in the future.
‘Spring has Sprung: The Beautiful Show’ ran until Sunday the 28th of April at Testing Grounds.
