A Don Quixote for the female comedian

A Don Quixote for the female comedian

STAND-up comedians often draw upon personal experiences in their jokes, but what happens when you see a stage play that’s based on their life?

Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre is about to premiere Is This Thing On?, a portrait of a stand-up comedian named Brianna from the age of 16 to 60, looking at her boring childhood, her slow self-realisation, her late coming-out, vomiting on stage, and carrying on telling jokes for a living.

With the stage set up in Belvoir’s downstairs theatre to create an authentic pub open mic comedy room atmosphere, the story unfolds in five different stand-up routines by five different actresses that play a different stage in Brianna’s life.

Written by Zoë Coombs Marr and co-directed by her and Kit Brookman, the new play is a portrait of a life in a comedy routine, which Coombs Marr herself described it as “an orchestral five-part comedy symphony”.

Coombs Marr won the Philip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award in 2011 for And That Was the Summer That Changed My Life – which led to Belvoir commissioning Is This Thing On?As well as a playwright and theatre-maker, Coombs Marr herself is also a stand-up comic.

Is This Thing On? is a kind of Don Quixote for the female comic – a magnificent and stupid quest for one shining moment of specialness that may have already happened.

DETAILS:

WHEN: October 2–26; various times  (Previews Thursday 2 and Friday 3 October; opening night Saturday October 4)

WHERE: Belvoir St Theatre; 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills Sydney

TICKETS: Full $48; seniors/industry/group $42; concession $38; previews $38

BOOKINGS: Call 02 9699 3444 or visit belvoir.com.au

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