Review: John Cage’s Disco Classics @ Adelphi

I’m not sure how to describe this show. It’s billed as a mix of experimental performance with disco-funk classics, well for a start there isn’t much disco-funk. It’s definitely one of the most out there performances of the Preston Tringe Festival.

The show felt a bit like a radio show. There were lots of short sketches, interspursed with introductions from Cliff Laine and the odd disco-funk track.

Some of the sketches had you on the edge of your sheet, mainly with worry and anxiety, while others had you shrinking back into your seat – especially the screaming sketch.

The sketches are bizarre to say the least. A disco-funk track sees Laine dance next to a lamp, and then appear to chat-up the lamp and end the sketch by kissing it gently. Not to mention turning it on and off again.

Nearly all the sketches were from the 1960s and I’m not of that generation so some of it was lost on me.

The best sketch of the show was the lemons sketch. Laine attempts to shake a load of lemons off a table, while moving the table around. It’s hard to describe but it’s amusing as he gets stuck with one last lemon that will not shift from the table and he gets steadily more annoyed.

So, if you fancy 45 minutes of being screamed at, some disco-funk, seeing a man smear his top half in Nivea cream and gobble down an orange and pour water down from a great height, this is for you.

John Cage’s Disco Classics continues at the Adelphi until Friday 31st July at 6.30 PM. It’s £4.

Image credit to marfis75.

30th July, 2009 0 Ed Walker