Stickybeak is a physical comedy show set on a street all Melburnians are sure to find familiar. After earning four stars from Time Out at the 2023 Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Beaks are bringing the show back for another laugh-out-loud run for this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival from April 16-21 at Malthouse, with tickets available here. Keep reading for our 2023 review of Stickybeak.
The spectacles you’ll witness as an audience member at Melbourne Fringe Festival are unlimited by the bounds of imagination. So while you probably wouldn't expect to observe four people performing uncannily realistic imitations of snails, it should also come as no surprise. Snail impressions are a small part of Stickybeak, a hilariously accurate snapshot of Aussie suburbia, complete with rotting fruit, dog poo and a rogue chicken.
This raucous physical comedy show is set in the front yards of three houses and depicts the daily interactions between nosy neighbours that we all recognise – you know, bin night discussions, marvelling in jealousy at front yard roses and grimacing about unruly dogs. The cast of four masterfully shapeshift between dozens of classic archetype characters: the elderly European man who’s obsessed with his fruit trees; his wife who spies on the rest of the street; the young family whose kids won’t stop screaming; and the gaggle of perky women in their weekly jogging group.
Performers Kimberley Twiner, Jessie Ngaio, Laura Trenerry and Patrick Dwyer nail every single one, down to the minute details. The dialogue is sparse – it’s not needed to signpost which character is on stage (although some simple costume changes help with that) or even what’s transpiring between them, because the impressively nuanced physicality of each actor does most of the talking. A sequence between two pre-pubescent teenagers where the dialogue is little more than “‘sup?” has the audience in stitches. The chuckling from the sold-out crowd is a constant throughout the show, and it’s a testament to the foursome's comedic expertise. It’s incredible to watch how the same performer, in a matter of seconds, transitions seamlessly from playing a dribbling toddler to a grumpy old woman, sparking laughter with both characters.
Despite the show’s recreation of life’s ordinary moments, the scenes that make up this performance are far from ordinary. Highlights include an epileptic dog named Psycho, brawling cats and dog shit wiped on a white picket fence (and a yuppy mother’s musical moment after breaking her nail while cleaning it up). It sounds very silly – and it is, but the silliness works and the audience laps it up. It’s classic Aussie humour, but reinvented – if you took parts of Kath and Kim and The Castle and turned it into a physical comedy show, you've essentially got Stickybeak.
The best bit is that the audience feels like they’re part of the neighbourhood, too, with cheeky aside glances from the performers breaking the fourth wall and bringing them in on the jokes.
