Count Arthur Strong and Terry Titter: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
(Gilded Balloon)

Reviewed by The High Priestess

To set the scene - Count Arthur Strong (old and now senile thespian) and Terry Titter (ex music hall comedian - cheeky chirpy bigot) get together to lecture on performance. The characterisation is so good you could almost believe it was true.

The Count is losing it a bit - mainly to whisky - shouts at imaginary people and stumbles over his words, "welcoming him" becomes "whelking him" to his great annoyance and we are constantly reminded of the importance of good "techsniques". He is an actor "of the old school". Terry is fully compos mentis and fully able to move, but is also the product of a bygone age - he prides himself on how PC he is being these days while coming out with things that make you cringe, alongside awful jokes punctuated with horn for comic effect. He is a parody of the things we used to find funny, and the scary thing is if you put him in a music hall he'd probably do quite well for a parody character.

I can't really do this one justice with words - one of the great things about this show is the effort that has gone into the subtleties of these two characters, they are both embarrasing and endearing - you laugh at them but also understand why they are like that and forgive them their alcohol, losing of glasses and place in the script. It's just so well done you are drawn into the portrayal of two old luvvies like it's real and listen to their out-dated advice with a compassionate smile.