Attenborough and his Animals

Clownfish Theater; Jonathan Tilley, Jess Clough-MacRae

Comedic brilliance

Any of the four shows including members of the absurdist comic troupes, the Latebloomers and associated company Clownfish Theatre, will reduce the most jaded block-headed adults into helpless, giggling children. These English-Australian-Swedish troupes draw from and exceed the best traditions of English absurdism, spiced up as they are, with Continental clowning and mime. The results are several potent tonics, best consumed live with other consenting adults present.

The English arm of the Late Bloomers, Jonathan Tilley, joins Jess Clough-MacRae in recreating the vast natural world of the determinably perennial, David Attenborough. We know his distinctive voice and the inevitable arcs of his barely credible encounters. One day, both Attenborough and his cast of critters fail to turn up on set. But the show must go on, and it’s up to Jonathan and Jess to take-on all the parts. With little props, the show relies on the pure clowning and mimic skills of the two performers, who first met at L’Ecole Jacques Lecoque, the famed Parisian school of mime, clowning and physical theatre.

Jonathan, once a scholarly Summerian archeologist, gave up a donnish Oxbridge future to tread the boards. He is hardly the first brilliant British comic to do so.