Two performers Bert and Nasi, dressed smartly in white shirts and grey trousers, one a customer the other a waiter, the roles interchangeable. Who is serving and who is being served, and how do the roles become assigned when seemingly no one is in charge?
Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas are no strangers to the Fringe, often covering serious real-world topics like Brexit in 2016 (Eurohouse) or the Syrian conflict in 2017 (Palmyra). This year is a more absurd but no less existential proposition. The pair spend a good ten minutes explaining to the audience what they are about to witness; the waiter is going to pour a glass of wine but is not going to stop, in fact the wine is going to pour everywhere to the point where tablecloth, glass and utensils require to bundled up and thrown stage right (your left). The table will then be re-laid and the scene replayed, over and over (and over) again. And by the end of the farcical, desperate, confusing and patience-testing 80 minutes will we be any wiser.
Initially they agree that, to keep it simple, they should not swap roles. This rule is almost immediately, wordlessly, broken. They share a look of confusion, of a trust broken, but continue on anyway. Mistakes creep in, the scene evolves.
At one point Bert seems to grind to a complete full stop as the waiter. Nasi waits patiently. A long drawn out set piece sees an increasingly deranged Nasi beg the immobile Bert to just pour the wine. Just pour and gravity will do the rest he implores, first requesting politely, then shouting, eventually begging, so that the show can continue. It is one of the darkest and funniest moments. Below the surface, undercurrents of meaning bubble and pulse. As they turn from collaborators to enemies to lost souls floating with no meaning in a seemingly endless void.
The arrangement of the tablecloth, the exact positioning of cutlery or the speed of dabbing spillages develops into almost jazz-like solos. Actually, theatrical jazz might be the best description of this, and fair to say that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea!
This is a phenomenological exploration of the meaning of life, of purpose, and of the audience’s purpose as well. And in the end, the overarching question, summoned in the show’s title, who’s getting the bill!?
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 22nd August 2024
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 1hr 20mins
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