Show Rating:

Hello Dalai, another addition to the Fringe's fast-growing
niche of spoof melodramas, can boast moments of witty invention
and glorious stupidity.

But they all but run dry about a quarter of the way through,
and despite a few marvellous set pieces, the gags are ultimately
too sparse to fill an hour.

It's a shame, as Piggy Nero ­ the trio also responsible
for last year's superior Bubonic Play ­ are appealing performers.
But this underpowered script isn't doing them many favours.

With a cheeky glint in her eye, Clare Thomson plays the flighty,
faux-coy debutante Lady Olivia, who must embark on a round-the
world Zeppelin trip to be with her betrothed.

Bidding farewell to her booming, top-hatted guardian, The
Colonel, she takes to her dirigible with loyal manservant Spunk
­ and yes, they do put the pun in 'spunk', even though they
confine most of their filthy innuendo for one brief exchange
towards the end. En route, they crash in the Himalayas, and find
themselves in the isolated spiritual paradise of Shangri-La.

It's the cue for a sequence of over-the-top revue-style parodies
referencing all manner of Eastern culture. Individually, a small
handful of these work well ­ and, significantly, it's actually
those which don't depend on the Oriental setting that get more
laughs.

As Spunk, Mat Baynton steals the show with two memorable moments,
a tender ballad about being trapped in this other Eden, which
gets guffaws for its surprisingly coarse lyrics, and a slow,
balletic dance in which he reveals rather more than his soul.

But as a troupe they generally overestimate the hilarity of
dance and mime, with skits that might be funny for those who
forced to study them at drama school, but likely to bypass the
rest of us. They believe, too, in stringing out a joke as long
as possible, which only serves to slow the pace when the gag
isn't worth it, which too often is the case.

There's a lot of potential here: the best jokes zing, the
performances are strong and there is an appealing undercurrent
of bawdy slapstick, but it feels several rewrites away from completion.
It was, admittedly, an early performance which Chortle saw ­
but Hello Dalai feels as if it needs weeks, rather than days,
to come right.

Steve Bennett