Writer: Tim Etchells with Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas
Director: Tim Etchells
The success of L’ Addition playing as part of Forced Entertainment’s 40th anniversary will depend on how funny you find the two performers. Some may warm to their Pythonesque brand of humour and silly walks, while others may find their schtick tiresome beyond belief. This is a show that will divide its audience.
The set-up is quite simple, although, in their overlong prologue, Bert & Nasi suggest that it could be considered quite difficult. The two men will play a scene taking place in a restaurant with a waiter pouring too much wine into a customer’s glass. They will repeat this scene, swapping the roles of waiter and customer, for over an hour.
Of course, repetition is a major theme in the experimental work of Forced Entertainment and its Artistic Director Tim Etchells, and L ’Addition could work a treat if it were performed by the company’s regulars. They would play the scene a little straighter and without so much shouting and absurdism, trusting that the reiterated scene would eventually bring its own comedy or tragic moments. But here, Bert & Nasi milk – and over-milk – every word and every action to the delight of some but to the frustration of others.
Last week, Tim Etchell’s performance with dancer Meg Stuart was seemingly over before it had even begun, so quickly did the hour pass. But L’ Addition feels longer than waiting for a waiter to take your food order in a busy pub on a Sunday afternoon. Endurance is nearly always a motif of Forced Entertainment’s practice, and the company was to perform a five-hour show this weekend before it was unfortunately cancelled. In the old days, it was said that a Forced Entertainment show wouldn’t be a Forced Entertainment show unless at least one person walked out. Tonight, one person leaves before the end, receiving the biggest laughs of the 70 minutes. When he returns, no one laughs at all.
But for those who stayed in these earlier Forced Entertainment shows, despite their lengths, there would usually be a pay-off at the end, or at least a sense of audience and performers being in it together, a shared experience. Bert & Nasi are incredibly well-rehearsed and never miss a beat, impressive when the show enters a few madcap crescendos, but the dial is turned up so high it invalidates the show’s premise. Quietly repeating the same scene over and over again would have brought more rewards. L’ Addition? Non merci.
Runs until 16 November 2024
Forced Entertainment’s 40th anniversary season concludes at Battersea Arts Centre withIf All Else Failsfrom Tuesday 19 November – Saturday 23 November 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Non merci
