Suckers – enjoy the simple pleasure of laughter

Suckers is a newly devised work by LOLipop Productions, comprising of Andrew Cory, Cameron Hurry, and Pippa Moore as part of Harvest Rain Theatre Company’s Affiliate Project.

The Affiliate Project is a newly created initiative of Harvest Rain to help emerging independent theatre producers put on a show by providing a performance space as well as artistic, technical, and promotional assistance. The initiative is to ensure that Brisbane continues to produce new and exciting theatrical work.

Suckers is the story about two clowns, Minnie and Claude, in the cleaning business, as they attempt to keep the business from being bankrupt by finishing a job with a brand new high tech vacuum cleaner.  But do they read the instructions? No, that would be very un-Australian, and a very un-clown-like thing to do. What ensues is a clever physical comedy piece that provides continual delight with loveable characters and laugh-out-loud moments. There’s even a great audience participation segment where we help the two clowns rage against the machine.

It’s not just the story or the lovable characters that make this piece. The talented clowning techniques of Cameron Hurry (who is extremely funny and feeds off the audience, resulting in a more organic – and cheeky -performance), while Pippa Moore’s “straight man” was a great counter to Cameron, and boy can she rock-out and play air-vacuum like no other! The last ingredient that brought the play to life was the sound design by Cameron Heit. The familiar and well-placed tunes where like another comic character in the script, giving the performance that extra oom-pah.

Well crafted and directed by clown expert Andrew Cory (Artistic Director of Backbone Youth Arts), who studied clowning in England and Spain, has succeeded in his attempt to break the stereotype that theatrical clowning is only for children, as I was amused the entire time (then again, what does that say about me?!). And yes it also got the two thumbs up from our eight year-old resident children’s reviewer Tiah, with the comment “Funny all-over!” (Sounds like a rash… and it’s catching!)

Suckers is just a delightfully silly night at the theatre. So take some time out of your hum-drum life to just enjoy the simple pleasure of laughter.

Collaborators: Andrew Cory, Cameron Hurry, and Pippa Moore
Lighting Design: Clare Finlayson
Sound Design: Cameron Heit