Beth Kayes

Reviews for "OOH BABY BABY"

Town Hall Concert Chamber, August 2009:

"The creation of new life provides a fitting inspiration for a piece of theatre that is breathtakingly spectacular, raucously funny and delicately intimate.

A fertile imagination and a lengthy gestation period have allowed Co. Theatre Physical to move beyond the formulaic gestures of physical theatre and deliver a show in which a spirit of playful exuberance conceals the meticulous and exacting choreography that has the actors flinging themselves in all sorts of wildly improbable assemblages.

Set within a high-tech fertility clinic, the drama alternates between a slapstick send-up of medical soap operas and a succession of powerful images that delve into the metaphysics of conception, fertility and birth.

The abrupt changes in tone frequently jolt the audience into those thought-provoking moments when laughter is intermingled with more reflective emotions.

A talented design team has reconfigured the awkward performance space of the Concert Chamber to create an intimate traverse staging that reveals the complex apparatus behind the show's pyrotechnics.

The highly trained cast show the kind of athleticism expected from circus performers, with Eve Gordon twisting and contorting herself around silk ropes in a daring and dangerous display of aerial acrobatics.

Mike Edward brings an impressive muscularity to his role as the support structure for the free floating women and also manages to deliver a nicely ironic take on the virile machismo of the leading man.

Debbie Newby throws herself into the gymnastic tumbling while giving a hilarious performance as the over-achieving head of the fertility clinic who drives herself to the edge of psychosis as she tries to fit the delivery of her own baby into a micro-managed schedule of professional commitments.

The show's more tender moments are in Beth Kayes' performance as a middle-aged woman pitted against her biological clock in a desperate battle to conceive. She hauntingly captures the pathos of infertility as she inflates a succession of balloons which fly briefly before collapsing.

Co. Theatre Physical have clearly established themselves as a company to watch. In Ooh Baby Baby they have wrested physical theatre away from its associations with avant-garde obscurantism and triumphantly asserted their links to the vital traditions of the circus."

- NZ Herald, 24 August 2009, by Paul Simei-Barton

Taranaki Festival '09:

"Absolute chaos is breaking out in the TSB Showplace’s Theatre Royal in New Plymouth and the audience love it. From the moment you enter the venue, you are taken on a wild, crazy ride. Ooh Baby Baby! is one insane show which leaves you gasping.

White coated doctors, stethoscopes, surgical gloves, trolleys, test tubes, X-rays and all sorts of medical paraphernalia hurtle round the stage at various times. But the cast also leap, tube, gyrate, climb, cartwheel, tango and contort into amazing intertwined positions and it’s all in the aid of sperm count, artificial insemination and childbirth.

At times it’s like a circus, at times it’s a raunchy, provocative, cabaret-like act, at times a hilarious comedy and at others a harshly realistic and moving drama. For those familiar with child birth and/or fertility clinics there is instant recognition of familiar situations. The DIY epidural met with much laughter from the audience. There’s creativity aplenty to amaze you, especially in the way of bubble-like wombs that swing from the ceiling. Even the stage has been changed so the audience can sit on both sides.

The cast impress you with their suppleness, their strength and their full-on, almost maniacal acting.
When you are still in recovery mode, they throw in another surprise by whipping out a guitar and showing just a dash more talent by singing as well. This is all accompanied by some strong lighting and sound effects like the repetitive cry of a baby.

There’s certainly a dollop of Monty Python humour mixed into this production. It’s fast paced, in your face, physically explicit but also very funny. Most of all, it’s truly memorable. There will be times when you feel you are in a state of shock, but relax, take a breath and know there’s a doctor in the house. Ooh Baby Baby! plays again tonight."

- Taranaki Daily News, Reviewed by Jo Hills