Review by Ron Fassler.
The internationally famed author and teacher Phillipe Gaulier, who died earlier this year, was described in his obituary in the Guardian as a “French clown who established his own theatre school to teach actors and comics how to find their ‘inner idiot.’” One of his prized pupils, Damien Warren-Smith (stage name Garry Starr), has taken those words to heart. Born in Scotland and raised in Australia, Starr has created a series of literate and absurdist one-man shows produced the world over, building a cult following on the fringe circuit before breaking into the West End and now Off Broadway. In previous shows like Garry Starr Performs Everything, he tackled everything from Greek tragedy to Shakespeare to modern pop culture and, in Greece Lightning, he attempted to perform the entirety of Greek mythology. Now, in his New York stage debut, he has recently opened in Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, which is currently in a limited run at Studio Seaview in the theatre district. Extremely comfortable on stage (you’ll see!), Starr utilizes mime, broad physical comedy and acrobatics, depending heavily on audience participation.
He also performs naked from the waist down for the entire show.
A gimmick? Sure. Necessary? Not at all. But since penguins are naked by nature, Starr is costumed free as a bird with no clothes on except for a tailcoat (split in the back to allow for multiple viewings of his butt) and orange flippers. A top hat and Elizabethan collar complete the outfit, much of which he sheds throughout its 70-minute length, so that by the end he’s in nothing but the ruff collar.
But adding such a subversive element allows for (dare I say it?) a cockeyed view of things that proves irresistible. Extremely comfortable in his nudity, Starr’s “in your face” brazenness prompts howls of laughter from an audience willing to go wherever he dares take you. Essential to his success is his inordinate charm that manages to never cross a line that would make any of what he does creepy. Indeed, it’s practically wholesome! And with the pretense that his lecture, or whatever you want to call it, involves classic literature through time and different countries, Starr does provide “redeeming social importance,” which is how the Supreme Court made pornography permissible by law in its landmark 1957 ruling.
But banish the thought there is anything even vaguely pornographic in Classic Penguins, in which dozens of those famously familiar paperback editions are tossed around and made fun of with gusto. In a recent interview with the website Broadway World, Starr explains how his inspiration came out of the blue. Starr: “I was in a bookshop in Perth, in Western Australia, and I saw the orange and white spines, and I went, “There’s a show.” I think the simplest ideas are so often the best. I just went, “Yeah, I’m going to perform all of those.”
Titles such as Gulliver’s Travels, Frankenstein, and Brideshead Revisited and many more come in for the full treatment. And though Starr titillates, his main intent is to tickle the funny bone rather than anyone’s erogenous zones. He is so open and honest that at every performance he manages to get an audience volunteer to take off all their clothes and be naked onstage with him. That’s trust! The night I attended, a woman in the audience, seemingly swept up in the moment, raised her hand, latching onto part of Starr’s bravery for herself. She wasn’t exploited in any way and, dramatic storyteller that he is, Starr even gave her a motivated and hilarious entrance.
It’s difficult to review a work like this without giving away the surprises involved, many of which turn on word play and puns. The titles are often used as punch lines for elaborate setups, with the show’s biggest laugh coming from how Starr incorporates Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ 1848 The Communist Manifesto into the proceedings, which left me $7 richer than before I entered the theater and took my seat. Speaking of seats, mine wasn’t close enough for recruitment when Starr bodysurfed, totally naked, over the audience, but when he rode a rope that swung out past the proscenium, I was in prime proximity of his pudendum.
Directed by Cal McCrystal, Starr’s longtime collaborator, the show is performed on a cheerfully minimal set which goes uncredited in the program. The lighting by Lily Dawford, with an assist from Andrew Garvis, stays immodestly bright throughout and the sound is crystal clear. And since he’s buck naked for much of the play, the battery pack for Starr’s mic has been skillfully hidden inside his ruff collar.
Stupid, clever, literary, daring, and insane, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is the most outrageous show of this new theatre season—so far. That said, I’ll be damned if I can figure out what’s going to top it. The run ends about a week from now on October 11th before Starr takes the show to London for a three-month engagement, his longest sit down ever. Something tells me he’s not going to have much trouble filling the seats.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguin is at Studio Seaview, 305 W 43rd Street, NYC, now through October 11th. For information on tickets, please click here.
Photos by Austin Ruffer.
Headline photo: Garry Starr.
