Aside from doom-scrolling, and the odd extremely worthwhile online arts journal, most people don’t find the time to read much nowadays. This could mean that great novels like Frankenstein disappear from human consciousness.
Character Garry Starr (Damien Warren-Smith), pipe-smoking in a top hat, wants to save “Lit-er-rat-te-yur-ah” – as only a fancy gentleman in flippers and formal suit-tails (yet no pants) could hope to do.
The flippers are a tribute to Penguin Books, founded in England in 1935. In Classic Penguins, Starr sets out to summarise (well, at least reference) a few dozen volumes from Penguin’s influential assortment of orange-spined works in about 60 minutes.
Clearly this doesn’t leave a lot of time for nuance, but the MICF blurb didn’t lead us to expect that. The game here is to use each novel’s title as a prompt for some extremely silly action, with varying degrees of nudity, often performed with audience participation.
As the former leader of a clown troupe, Warren-Smith did a good job of wrangling audience members who took scenes in unexpected directions.
Fans of Starr’s earlier work (say in his summary of the Greek Gods in Greece Lightening will be pleased to see the return of high-intensity clowning with sharp musical cuts. Starr still likes props and japery, but this time he brought extra surprises from how he worked Penguin titles into the action.
Starr is a man who is very comfortable with his body. But even if you aren’t, there’s no need for concern – all of the action is consensual and there are ways to opt out of scenes. Fans of physical comedy in particular should waddle over to these Classic Penguins – winner of “Best Comedy” awards from the 2025 Perth and Adelaide Fringes.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins
The Malthouse – Beckett Theatre, Sturt Street, Southbank
Performance: Thursday 28 March 2025 – 7:45pm
Season continues to 20 April 2025
Information and Bookings: www.comedyfestival.com.au
Image: Garry Starr (supplied)
Review: Jason Whyte