Review by Steve Bennett at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

It’s little surprise when comedians move towards horror, given that both genres are all about creating and releasing tension to mess with your minds.

After dipping their toes into these murky waters with their spooky and shocking ghost tale in Old Melbourne Gaol a couple of years ago, sketch trio Watson now present a full-on theatrical comic chiller.

They certainly make fun use of everything available to them in the high-tech Cooper’s Malthouse, with impressive 3D sound design, moody lighting and atmospheric staging. The trio use the full space, too, sometimes in unexpected ways to keep the audience on their guard. 

Such theatrics are used to set the scene with a creepy prelude that recreates an ancient witch trial, ending with the desperate screams of a woman echoing through the darkness as she is buried alive. 

Afraid? Well, the premise is that Watson – alpha idiot Adam McKenzie, beta idiot savant Liam Ryan and the more ambiguous mix of insecurities and enthusiasm that is Teagan Higginbotham – are here to cure you of your terrors.

 The show is presented as a seminar, initially using aversion therapy to address common phobias, assuming a little of what you fear does you good. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that McKenzie has a different solution, causing the comic bickering that underpins any sketch group to heighten as his colleagues try to stop him going off-piste. And that goes hand-in-hand with the rising tension as to what his sinister technique could be.

The premise is a versatile one, allowing witty and silly banter to flow between the three without diluting the psychological threats. They are a tight-knit group, so when their rows get personal, their characters can niggle each other by exploiting intimate insecurities – giving a rewarding friction between the silly to-and-fro and the darker elements.  

The combination means Go To Hell! can be proper scary – especially for the coulrophobic, thanks to the menacing threat of a murderous clown – then return to the gags without a crunching gear change. Director  Steven Gates, of Tripod fame, has done a fine job in maintaining that balance, while the trio’s background in comedy that doesn’t respect the fourth wall creates a lot of credibility.

There’s a little less power in the final third, as exposition comes to the fore to tie up all the story threads. It’s necessary to make the piece cohere satisfactorily, but chills and laughs subside for the storytelling needed.

Very much in the vein of Ghost Stories – the psychological stage comedy-horror from League Of Gentlemen writer Jeremy Dyson and Derren Brown collaborator Andy Nyman – Go To Hell! is an ambitious idea, skilfully played out in every aspect. 

The result is an impressive and rounded theatrical experience – and with a poignant sting in the tail – that will make you laugh and jangle your nerves in equal measure, and maybe conclude that a little fear is a good thing.

Review date: 12 Apr 2017
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett