fringe: sound and fury's hitchcocked

Just when I honestly didn't think that Sound And Fury could get any funnier than Dirty Fairy Tales or Hamlet and Juliet... along comes Hitchcocked.

With a liberal dose of North By Northwest, a sprinkling of The Man Who Knew Too Much and more than a few references to various other Hitchcock movies (the way they used Dial M for Murder was my favourite though), I think Hitchcocked could very well be their funniest production so far (or at least of the three I've seen)... I definitely laughed more and harder during this one than I have before, which is saying something.

As I've said before, one of the things I love about Sound And Fury is how their shows are both incredibly frugal as far as sets, costumes (seriously, I don't think I've been to a show where somebody's pants weren't ripped in some fashion) and general production values but at the same time that's not only part of the charm, but it allows them to absolutely run amok with improvisation and general comedy... and sometimes it actually adds to the humour of the show (like, for example, the incredibly rickety "door" that refused to stay shut... or somebody not being able to find certain props backstage).

Although the opening sequence, using a projected mashup of Hitch's real introductions to his television show is pure genius and example of how they make a little do a whole lot. And the projection screen is also really well used to fill in for all the set they don't have.

Richard, doing his very, very best Cary Grant impression, is beset by bumbling cops, femme fatales and gangsters with questionable eyebrow as he tries to discover who killed his acting partner.

Patrick and Ryan play every other character (bar one, which is filled through the magic of audience participation)... from the audience-created female Hungarian hypnotist (and my apologies to Patrick who then had to try and implement my suggestion of Hungarian... with varying degrees of success before he gave up entirely), to the aforementioned cops, fatales and gangsters.

I honestly cannot recommend this one enough, especially if you're a Hitchcock fan... there's enough references to keep you entertained, and the rest of the show is a hell of a good laugh.

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