Flyer
This show is about as simple as a piece of theatre can get. One man, a few props (primarily settee, television and spear) and an hour and a half of keen, and hilariously funny, observations. Australian Mark Little, best remembered for his role as the rough and ready but good-natured Joe Mangel on the Aussie soap "Neighbours," is the one man and a better choice in the part is difficult to imagine. The slight Australian twang somehow seems perfect (be honest - we Brits tend to think of Australians as being a bit caveman-ish anyway!) and when the Mangel persona that we loved and remember shines through he has us eating out of the palm of his hand.
This show would fall completely flat without someone particularly charismatic at the helm, and that is precisely what Mark delivers. At the opening we see a slide show of photographs from Mark's childhood and that of his beautiful wife Kathy, and there plenty of references to his life with Kathy woven into the dialogue. All of that makes the show intensely personal. It's not a stranger saying these things to us, it's an old friend, and he can insult us any way he chooses because - in malespeak: we think he's a dick-head and he thinks we are too - in femalespeak: we love him and he loves us too.
It's kind of like a stand-up routine but it's gentler than that and genuinely informative. Most of all it's thought provoking. There are all kinds of revelations in there that are not really new to us, it's stuff we knew anyway, but know we know why, now we can see it from his/her perspective. Through references to caveman and cavewoman he shows how biology adapted us differently to face very different lifestyles, and while our lifestyles may have converged our biology hasn't. We see the same situation from very different perspectives and that can lead to arguments and misunderstandings.
Mark opens the show with the observation that "all men are arseholes," and notes that if he had said "all women are bitches" there would have been a riot. But it's ok to say that about men because we know we are arseholes - we were told so before we left the house anyway! Of course he then goes on to refute that statement - that is what the show is all about. From a womans perspective men are arseholes, but to other men that very behaviour that makes them arseholes is perfectly socially acceptable. Women judge men by their own standards which are fundamentally different to male standards. Women, Mark tells us, are co-operators, men are negotiators - a subtle difference but a vital enough one to impose a totally different shift on the same situations. When a job needs doing women will co-operate and do it together, whereas men will negotiate and the loser of the negotiation will do it. Simple really!
Along the road to demonstrating these conclusions there is some clever audience participation in which he ellicits from the male members of the audience that the parts of the home they think of as their territory aren't actually in the house at all. Later, realising he may have insulted the ladies by accusing them of not being hindered by logic he reverses the statement (women are hindered by logic) and asks them which they prefer - men: must be one or the other, right! - ladies: neither - case proven.
It's produced in partnership with Relate, "the relationship people," and you can see that underlying all of the hilarity there really is genuine educational value. So, if your partner doesn't understand you, take them to see this show, maybe you'll learn to understand them a little better too.
Funny, thought provoking and highly ellucidating. A must for anyone who wants to understand what makes the opposite sex tick.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net
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