The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic

I've commented before on the weird and wonderful array of people one can often find at The Basement Theatre in town, and that was under normal circumstances, imagine if you will the little trepidation that seized my non-hipster soul as I trundled out to attend the opening night of The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic, part of the Auckland Fringe festival. If Basement was already home to the fringe of Auckland's theatre-going public, what would the fringe of the fringe be like? And what piercing would I need to show in order to gain admittance?!

It turns out that the fringe of the fringe is, in fact, a Canadian comedian whose pseudonym makes him sound like he poses as a doctor, a passing comment which was not well received. He touched my friend's hair, called me the picture of manliness, and imagined out loud a rather alarming series of events whereby he was experiencing the wonders of the female period through his own penis. He was a charmer alright, and I shall call him Colin. Why you ask? Simple; the alliteration of Canadian Comedian Colin appeals to me.

Desperately I shall attempt to relate the last few sentences back to the show by saying that CCC set the tone for the evening; odd. Odd odd odd. Odd. [Some mighty fine writing once again cements my title as master of smooth segues.]

The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic is odd. It is also amusing. It's warm. It's fun. It's... mad. We descend the spiral staircase into the world and psyche of Angus, a sweet, if slightly decapacitated, homeless man. He wears a beanie not unlike that of Where's Wally, and likes to dance. We learn of his past. We learn of his future. We learn that it is very possible to make sweet, sweet love to a chocolate cake. We have absolutely no idea what he is on about, or what we laughed about, but we learn that life is a mess and sometimes you just have to go with it. [Aside - we also find that writing using the royal 'we' is strangely fulfilling.]

Essentially a one man show from Vachel Spirason (no... I have no idea how to pronounce that either), the show is somewhat reliant on the performer and luckily he's up to the task. Vachel has timing, understands how an audience thinks and has the opportunity to both rely on his script, and improvise at various times too giving the audience a chance to participate - be warned those of you frightened of being dragged up on stage! The series of vignettes from Angus' life, seemingly a series of cul-de-sac moments, have a strange and unexplainable cohesion.

Yes, ultimately I don't have a clue what happened, or what I was meant to have learned, but I laughed and so did everyone around me with the exception of Canadian Comedian Colin who hunched forward intently on his elbows for the duration of the play and stared at the performer as if trying to steal the essence of his "funny" by using just his mind. He also busied himself touching me knee at regular intervals.

The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic - go for the laughs, stay for weirdo in the seat next to you. (do it - you'll enjoy it)