****

Live Wire Theatre Company’s production is an audacious venture. It is a bawdy sex romp and very funny. Dougie Blaxland has penned a play entirely in verse. He has taken Chaucer’s above mentioned cock and hen characters and woven a story of uninhibited lust, much rogering and violent revenge.

The play’s language is a reminder of a certain Stanley Unwin, a self proclaimed professor of nonsensical English based on tongue twisting alliterations, who was known to TV audiences back in the 1960’s and 70’s. The two performers Tom Dewberry and Abigail Unwin-Smith deserve immense praise for not only negotiating all the complexities and peculiarities of the words but also for their physical movement and portrayal of numerous characters.

The plot is convoluted and as the story draws to a close becomes hilariously surreal. James Bounds direction has succeeded in keeping the pace fast yet still intelligible given the outpouring of unusual language. Does the play have a moral? Who knows and does it matter in such a rollicking tale. 

****

Chauntecleer & Pertelotte

Venue: -    Zoo Southside V 82

Dates: - 7 to 31 August 2009 ( not 19) 

Times: -  18.30 to 19.30

Fringe Programme Page: -  p186