Review – Imperial Fizz
When: 26th Feb to 18th March, most nights @ various times
Prices: Adults $24 | Conc., Child, Group $21 – Buy Tickets
Company: CIT in assoc. with Theatre Tours International and Absurdum International
IMPERIAL Fizz is a well-iced scotch and soda. Full-bodied, sharp but smooth, refreshing and guaranteed to make you feel nice.
Fizz stars the unfeasibly talented Beth Fitzgerald and David Calvitto; the latter has taken out Fringe acting awards both here and in Edinburgh. The pair are an ostensibly carefree haute societe couple; a pastiche of every black-tied leading man and cocktail dressed ingenue in Hollywood history.
They exchange witty one-liners, searing barbs and fatal ripostes with the kind of bam-bam-bam tempo that would make Noel Coward weep. They waltz back and forth between the chaise and the well-stocked wet bar with well-practiced ease.
The script, by New Yorker Brian Parks, is fairly formulaic and the twists well-telegraphed ahead of time. It’s safe and comfortable. However, there is a delicious dash of Satre which has accidentally dripped into the script.
The constant flood of banter between Fitzgerald and Calvitto’s characters begins eventually to grate; an unintentional bit of meta brilliance on Parks’ part. These two people have been putting up with each other for a long, long time, and eventually – quite by accident – the audience begins to share in their pain.
The show is a comfortably witty and enjoyably classy jewel in the otherwise hectic and unpredictable Fringe, like an Isley whisky amongst bottles of Jack Daniels. If you’d like to see some Fringe, but are turned off by the gratuitous experimentalism of most of the acts, let Higher Ground mix you up an Imperial Fizz.
