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Reviewed Thursday 24th October 2013
Hew Parham's comic creation, Giovanni, the Italian waiter to beat all Italian waiters, appears to the sound of the Overture from Mozart's Don Giovanni, showing a love for football, the real football that Australian's call soccer to differentiate it from Australian Rules Football, which is actually a variation of Rugby. They're a weird mob.
As the music continues, Giovanni beats eggs, grates Parmesan, and then it all turns surreal as the food becomes part of his morning ablutions, the eggs becoming shave cream, olive oil going on his hair, and Parmesan used for underarm deodorant, everything that he does being choreographed to the music.
Directed and co-written by Craig Behenna, a regular collaborator with Parham, this is a cleverly constructed piece that, every time you think you know who Giovanni is, they change direction and offer another facet of the character to destroy your perception and generate a re-evaluation process. Although it can all be taken at a surface level, this is a thinking person's comedy.
In one section, Giovanni rattles of streams of rapid fire pseudo-Italian gobbledegook, in another he speaks English with a strong accent, interspersed with ItalianisEd English words. He has running conversations with his mother, off stage somewhere in the kitchen. Totally opposed to fast food outlets, he extols the virtue of traditional, slow cooking, mentioning that his mother has been cooking one particular dish since 1976. He sings snatches of opera. He tells of playing football, buT Loving the idea of being a waiter far more. He explains the three years of study needed to become an Italian waiter, from growing the perfect moustache, in the first year, to seducing the ladies, in the final year. He tells of his first job, at a restaurant with a name that would certainly deter customers.
We even get to meet his mother, as his apron is swiftly turned into a headscarf, making her look and sound rather like Tubbs( Steve Pemberton), from Royston Vasey's local shop in the BBC television comedy, The League of Gentlemen, or the dotty old dears from Monty Python's Flying Circus, which the creators referred to as "pepper pots" because of their shape. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, comes the Englishman with an Oxbridge accent, who always wanted to be an Italian waiter.
Hew Parham performed in cabaret back in the days of Adelaide's The Weimar Room, formally studied drama here at Flinders University, and then studied modern clowning in Canada. He draws on all of his skills and experience in this production, with a wide range of diverse but neatly interconnected styles, from as far back as Commedia del'Arte, to absurdist theatre, through realism, to clowning, and mime.
This is another gem from Parham, following on from the great success of his previous very popular character, Schmoo, and this production, with some revision, has already had several outings and is likely to have more as people demand to see it again. Parham has established a reputation for quality productions that are far more than comedy performances, offering insights and challenging audiences to engage with the content, as well as laugh their socks off. This is another of those excellent productions.
