Review by Steve Bennett at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Trygve Wakenshaw is the acclaimed physical comedian behind shows such as Kraken, while his Kiwi compatriot Barnie Duncan is the creator of passionate salsa DJ Juan Vesuvius. Together they have created the wonderful and unique world of Different Party, in which the ennui of office life spawns absurdist fantasy.

The closest comparison might be the slow precision of Jacques Tati, but this pair – the classic comedy combo of tall, thin guy and shorter, stouter oppo – add a much strong dollop of surrealism to their strange visual humour.

Wakenshaw takes to the stage first, deploying the tired old street mime technique of imagining his briefcase to have a mind of its own, staying stationary as he walks around it. But when Duncan enters, wearing a too-large suit that makes him look like a teenager who’s raided his father’s wardrobe, it becomes apparent that the bags are behaving like dogs, and increasingly frisky ones at that.

It might not sound much on paper, but the performance is perfect, making the transformation vivid in the mind’s eye, and laced with real jokes in the minimal dialogue. It’s not just the oddness of the spectacle and the conviction of its execution that appeals, though that’s a large part of it.

Then, in a blink, the mongrels are subdued and normality is temporarily resumed, at least until the next weird incident that helps fill the 9-5 as Grareth Krubb (Wakenshaw) and Dennis Chang (Duncan) await the phone call that will seal their next deal for Rucks’s Leather Interiors. ‘Imagine a room covered in skin’ is their usually unsuccessful sales pitch.

Everyday scenes, such as scrabbling for a pen, are heightened into strange slapstick joy. Stationery is deployed in weird and wonderful ways. And some scenes just defy description. The insane is treated as normal, as if bizarre rituals have evolved in the immeasurable time the pair have been trapped together in this administrative limbo, and they’ve now forgotten how normal looks.

Between moments of frenzied madness, there’s a dreamy, otherworldly pace, which does lead to the occasional dull moment, but there’s no denying the ambition to create a warped and inventive alternate universe.

The pair have a chemistry that survives the weirdness, united in this twisted comic vision. And their technical prowess is apparent, performing with precision when it’s needed, but enough of an air of unpredictability that stops Different Party appearing over-rehearsed.

Different is the key word in the title, and you’ll see nothing quite like this at the festival. So even if the show could be sharpened, the nonsense imagery and peculiar running jokes will stay with you.

Review date: 18 Apr 2017
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett