that pair

That Pair

Cabaret XXL

Birmingham Rep

***

THAT PAIR are the comedy duo of Lorna Shaw and Kathryn Bond and their current show is based loosely on the gender sterotyping of Disney with Lorna appearing as the tiared princsess and Kathyryn acting out several other less than glamorous roles.

However to use that as an overall description of their performance would be misleading as none of their act really has a purpose or statement and it follows the relationship format that French and Sunders used to have with a straight woman and a comedy side kick.

The show is very much one long sketch and In essence the Pair take us through a few personal observations about being girls in the broad suggestion of them working or being part of the childrens entertainer world. The anecdotes are linked with a series of musical numbers.

At times they seemed a little nervouse and occasionally stumbled from link to link or maybe that was part of their act - it was hard to tell.

Some of the their songs however were clever and witty like The Truth About Girls and the newly penned 10 Mile Radius which was a great observation on Internet dating.

Others though lacked the pre scene set up to fully grasp the reason for them being in the show or their connection to the Disneyesque characters they were playing.

Shaw and Bond did their best to get the audience going from the moment they stepped out on to stage, encouraging the audience to stand, sing along and dance with them. This, though, seemed like a mistake as no one was quite ready yet to engage with them after one minute of them arriving ,so it was a little awkward.

Later they again attempted to get the audience to sing along a few rude lines of a song  and it seemed a tacky way of getting the audience involved - perhaps it would be more suited to the student circuit.

The past few extreme acts featured at Caberet XXL are hard to follow, often pulverising the audience into compliance and presented with greater authority. As That Pairs humour is more gooning than gritty it seemed the girls had a hard task winning over the audience.

The pairing clearly have the ability to deliver and write some original comedy but after a short 40 minutes the show was over without them really making the impact they seem capable of.

Jeff Grant

05-05-16 

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