Now here is an interesting prospect. Experimental theatre duo Lucy McCormick and Jennifer Pick draw on sketch comedy and the dynamic of the double act for their latest show, Number 1, The Plaza. Prepare to be amused and also shocked.
Things start amiably enough as we are promised an “evening with…” format in which they will be crooning crowd-pleasers from classic musicals. But wine starts to flow and the glam-frocked, high-heeled twosome — McCormick loud, lairy and knickerless, Pick more deadpan — soon start to kick off. What follows veers from the hilariously comic to the downright disturbing as they explore reality and relationships. McCormick dominates, but Pick is equally forceful. Like a Morecambe & Wise from your darkest nightmares, McCormick and Pick portray a pair who live together, as well as clown together and fight together.
The stage eventually becomes a battleground for arguments. Excrement, both literal and metaphorical (though thankfully for the front row fake), is thrown around. The result is not as confrontational as You’re Not Alone, the recent show by Kim Noble, yet messily intriguing in every sense.
As with Noble’s work, this straddles comedy and theatre and may not be to everyone’s taste. But if you like your humour to push boundaries or you like your theatre to be laced with awkward laughs pay a visit to Number 1, The Plaza.
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