Repertory Theatre is probably the most bizarre, ridiculous farce that I’ve seen at the Fringe and it is hilariously funny. Israeli comedy duo Elephant and Mouse (Erez Drigues and Iftach Jeffrey Ophir) have returned this year with writer Eldad Cohen’s fast-paced comedy.
A young, ambitious playwright is trying to get his new play performed and he is invited by a neurotic, eccentric Hamlet-obsessed artistic director to discuss the possibilities.
What follows is a series of apparently unrelated conversations, random lights going on and off and irritating repetition of sentences with the characters changing roles with each other and odd physical movements in what appears to be a zany, puzzling rollercoaster ride.
We also discover that the playwright’s father died on the stage whilst playing Hamlet and the stage becomes littered with ghosts from the past.
But you have to stick with it because in the second half all of these random eccentricities are resolved as the same actions are performed again and ingeniously fit together, and you realize just how clever this play really is.
To watch these two talented actors perform is exhausting. They have incredible comic timing and amazing physicality. An accomplished, exciting theatrical piece.