Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Ange Lavoipierre’s reconstruction of insomnia is artfully created, but is ultimately as frustrating as the real thing as her absurd train of thought becomes more convoluted and less coherent.

A slice of Gaulier-style awkward clowning introduces us to the premise that she’s being kept awake by her restless brain raising all manner of dormant anxieties. Calming sleep meditation, bedtime stories and bizarre ASMR noises have little effect, so she turns to the internet – and in particular a trailer for The Exorcist.

In its semi-wakened state, her mind invents its own surreal take on the horror story, retelling it from the point of view of the devil Pazuzu – resplendent in pleather shorts – who finds himself in the infinite railway station that is the bland mind of teenager Regan.

It’s an ambitious aim to make this trippy premise sustain for a full hour, but unfortunately Lavoipierre can’t pull it off. The story’s too strange and slight to engage, while several examples of wordplay, including the titular one, are just too tortured. She mashes the plot into other pop culture landmarks, too, from The Matrix to John Denver, Austin Powers to Richard Nixon but the contrivance often grinds.

She’s very watchable, and the well-crafted show is atmospheric and complex – thanks to 281 sounds cues, including several recordings of fellow comedian Jane Watt voicing the internet or Lavoipierre’s smartarsed brain. But it’s all in the service of a story that’s too jumbled to get, and maintain, a handle on.

Whatever possessed her to make this, it’s probably too abstract to turn many heads. But it’s an admirable effort to do something different.

Review date: 21 Apr 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett