A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits Rocking an a Rocking Chair for Fifty-Six Minutes and Then Leaves... 15

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Cabaret and Variety (seminar, funk)

  • Babes in arms policy: Babies are not allowed in the venue
  • Policy applies to: Children under 2 years
Venue Age Restriction: Strictly 18+ after 21:00

Description

One performance only. Turn up early, sell-out expected.

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General venue access

  • Accessible entry: There are 25 steps into the performance space.

    • Wheelchair access type: Not fully wheelchair accessible

  • Stairs: 20+
    Number of stairs is provided as guidance and is not in addition to any wheelchair access type (lift/ramp etc) stated above.

Each venue can contain several space with different accessibly information. Visit the venue page for full venue accessibility info

How and when to make an access booking

Our access tickets service is available to anyone who:

  • Would like to book specific accessibility services, e.g. a hearing loop, audio description headsets, captioning units, seating in relation to the location of the BSL interpreter
  • Requires extra assistance when at a venue
  • Has specific seating requirements
  • Is a wheelchair user
  • Requires a complimentary personal assistant ticket to attend a performance

Nick Mellish 121 days ago

Where to even begin. The title of this show says it all and you'll either gravitate towards or away from it. If it falls into your wheelhouse, you'll love it and 15 years on at the Festival Fringe, it's safe to say many do.

On paper and in practice, yes, it's just a man in a gorilla costume rocking back and forth on a chair. In person, it's electrifying. The audience absolutely make this. Interact too much and you'll be booed; time it just right and you enhance the night. Bananas were given, chants started. Someone even proposed to the gorilla.

The man beneath the costume absolutely knows his audience, eliciting cheers and full euphoric reactions and applause across the full 56 minutes.

If you want to be pretentious, you could argue this is immersive theatre in distilled form; a communal experience with a message you choose to read into something. Art? If you want it to be, sure. Others would say it's just absurd and silly, and hilarious accordingly. Others still would say that everyone celebrating it is cynically buying into a nonsense which devalues the notion of performance art. There is no real answer. You make of it what you will. I just know I haven't experienced anything like this for years, cheering and laughing along with an audience of 250+ people crammed into a basement on a wet Monday evening.

Same time next year? Yes please.

(Instagram: @thejosselish)

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Snap Judgement 142 days ago

⬇️LAST YEAR'S REVIEW⬇️

★★★★★ A YOUNG MAN DRESSED AS A GORILLA DRESSED AS AN OLD MAN SITS ROCKING IN A ROCKING CHAIR FOR 56 MINUTES AND THEN LEAVES… 14

THE GOOD
* Absurdly Literal. We got what we came for and we LOVED it.
* Crowd-Sourced Comedy. It's an hour-long anticipation journey with a tribelike comedic response.
* Unpredictably Predictable. The beauty is in the layered absurdity and the shared experience of it.

THE NOT SO GOOD
* Niche Appeal. This avant-garde comedy might be too "out there" for some.

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See all my 5-star and 4-star reviews in Instagram Highlights @snap.judgement.reviews

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