Review – Frank Woodley and Simon Yates: Inside

It’s proving to be a little difficult to figure out how to describe this show. The best way I can sum it up is to call it ‘A Fringe Festival kind of show’. That’s not to say that it’s anything but excellent, but it just seems ever so slightly out of place at the comedy festival. It’s dark, thematic, and more focused on the narrative than the laughs.

It’s a story of two Russian twins, locked up and yearning for freedom from an unspecified type of incarceration. They struggle against the physical and psychological torments of being caged, along with the interference of the twisted Warden, and must eventually put their dreams in to practice and effect an escape.

There are definitely comedic moments in this show; some quick one liners, a lot of physical comedy, and an excellent section of intertwining bodies moving in concert. The show page sums it up really well, in fact, by calling it ‘Heart-breaking Nonsense’. You won’t come away from this happy and laughing, you’ll be chuckling and in thought. Again, it feels more like a Fringe show than a comedy, even comedy theatre, gig.  But, I should reiterate that it is an excellent production and I cannot recommend it enough.

Inside is playing at The Famous Spiegeltent, out the front of the Arts Centre, every day but Mondays until the 21st of April.