Talk to me when you’re dead
While at work in the morgue, Lilly and Lola experience the reanimation of corpses who proceed to tell their tales. Talk to me when you’re dead sees the girls become involved in a musical murder mystery involving a psychopath, a trophy wife, pizza and bicycles.
The venue suited this show perfectly with its clinical white gallery walls and a well appointed set to transport us to the morgue. They utilized plenty of lovingly crafted props and when they didn’t have a particular one they simply resorted to mime, which was pulled off seamlessly. I’m not sure if it was intentional that the audience was seated on a raised platform almost overlooking the stage but it felt like we were in an observation room of an operating theatre.
This show had an “Ally McBeal” feel in the way that dream-like sequences occurred in a workplace. In addition to the rather humorous verbal exchanges between characters, we were treated to many dance numbers that didn’t exactly propel the story forward but provided a surreal bent and served as an alternate telling of parts of the story. This was inventive and often amusing, not only in the ridiculousness of the sequence but also with a bit of exaggeration in the choreography thrown in for good measure.
The two lead characters bounced off each other well and had some quite amusing lines to work with. Siobhan McLaughlin’s Lilly was the more comical of the two, using plenty of exaggerated motions and wacky facial expressions to deliver her lines. By comparison Jenny Barrass’ Lola was extremely reserved in her performance and often barely reacted to her surroundings at all. Perhaps this was an attempt to set up a straight man scenario or a trait of her character but it did restrict her in conveying her lines for maximum laughs. The other players brought their eccentric characters to life with wonderfully expressive performances.
Numerous lighting effects were used throughout the piece including a red glow when there was talk / songs about blood, plentiful strobe lighting to mess with the epileptics and a smoke machine to annoy the asthmatics. A lot of effort had obviously gone into the set that came as close to the real thing without having to spend a fortune / steal actual medical equipment.
Being a predominantly musical show, a large recorded soundtrack was used. Each song was played from its beginning so you could easily recognize it a few bars in and instantly cotton on to how that tune fitted into the scene. A lot of the songs were obvious choices but they added some humour of recognition to the absurdist nature of people spontaneously dancing in a morgue. My only problem was the way the songs were abruptly ended in a quite jarring nature.
This was a brilliant and unique show that delivered that laughs and had you bopping along.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.