Punch and Judy

The violence is full-blooded and extreme, and if you find yourself offended by the onstage mayhem, you’ve clearly come to the wrong place.... full review

These people are damn talented. A highly theatrical show with tasteful, hilarious violence and wonderfully choreographed fight sequences. The actors just nail the physicality of being a live puppet. There is a moment in the show (no spoilers) that just fills the entire space and we are reminded of the magic of theatre. A drummer, with sound effects on the ready, lives in the front of house with the audience as he provides the rim shot to punchlines, cow bells gunshots and the beating of a baseball bat which lies in the deadly hands of Punch. And it's all played for laughs. The directing is razor-sharp and again, these actors know what they are doing considering they all have extensive, professional backgrounds. This is a show that is ready f... full review

You can read my full review here - http://www.artsbeatla.com/2016/06/hff16-1/... full review

Henry Mayhew, in 1841, named his pioneering humor magazine after the gleeful little murdering bastard. Neil Gaiman turned to sought him out to use in one of his best graphic novels. Him and the Missus are clues in the 2014 thriller Gone Girl, and in the Marx Brothers’ 1931 Monkey Business Harpo joins them in a performance. There’s even an opera by Harrison Birtwistle. But I gotta say, for fun and merry murdering mayhem, none of them can hold a candle to Christopher Johnson’s live action adaptation of the classic Punch and Judy. For the unacquainted Punch is a happy go lucky, fustigating psychopath, a cross between Bugs Bunny and Ted Bundy. His origins are debated, but probably evolved from 16th century Italian commedia dell’arte, be... full review

THE most AWESOME thing at the Fringe.... full review

fringereview.com The classic hand-puppet show “Punch and Judy” gets the live action treatment in this excellently realized production. We may be most familiar with the British sea-side version of the story, but its roots go much deeper than that. Using a cast of six (plus Foley artist Ryan Beveridge), the story is played out in Italian half-masks, using commedia del arte techniques with contemporary trappings and fight choreography. A 3 ft ground-row runs along the front of the stage, keeping the puppet-show feel, and allowing for some nice low-tech special effects. Jimmy Slonina, a veteran of Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil shows, is note-perfect as Punch, the lovable ne’er-do-well who tries to murder his way out of trouble but just keeps run... full review

If you like your laughs slightly naughty and your physical hijinks on the violent, deadly side... this show is for you! Leave the kids at home!... full review