fringe: elixir

adelaide fringe: elixir
It's a normal day in the lab for Doctor Harris and Doctor Gorham and their AI testing computer (which is very reminiscent of another computer in the same line of work)... they're up to Elixir 17B and need to run some tests of strength and agility before they can administer the elixir to the test subjects... themselves...

This is the set-up for Cal Harris and Tom Gorham's two-man acrobatic show and it works very well. And they also manage to mix in a large amount of comedy, which always works really well with circus type shows.

I saw Harris last year in Alice in the Madhouse, and swore then that if I got a chance to see him again in something, I'd definitely take it... so he was the main reason I wanted to see this show and it was absolutely the right decision. Harris has some exceptional comic timing, not to mention the fact that he's got one of those faces that can be quirky yet gorgeous one minute and doing comedy rubber-face the next. And then there's his body... I mean I know he's an acrobat and everything, but... wow.

Harris and Gorham have quite the arsenal in their bag of circus tricks... from ladder tricks (and that's still one of my favourite pieces of acrobatic equipment, although I'm not entirely sure why) to an (unfortunately brief) trapeze routine, acrobatics of every description, some totally unexpected sand (or, in this case, flour) painting, beautiful singing/guitar playing from Harris, and a finale using the seesaw I don't think anyone in the audience will forget in a hurry.

If there's a downside, it's only that in a couple of spots it feels like the set-ups and changeovers while moving between sequences are perhaps a little slow... and perhaps more could have been made of the testing computer voiceover during those sections. But it's a very minor quibble as, for the most part, it's an incredibly funny and entertaining show.

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