Thigh Armor for the Gods
at C (venue 34)

Ravi Bali

A man's life is thrown into chaos when his nosy, interfering secretary decides he is so bored, boring and unhappy that she contrives to put some zip back into his miserable existence.

This knockabout comedy has an already neurotic man reduced to a confused wreck as the benign meddler gets him fired, stirs up the suspicion of his wife and has him committed to a mental asylum. The asylum is run on an equal opportunities basis by doctors who all have psychiatric conditions themselves. We watch as the loony doctors rush around in the style of a classic Marx Brothers film, confusing everybody around them and giving the audience much to laugh at in the absurdity of what in reality would be a very scary situation. Written by Christopher Lincé, the story rockets along without ever leaving the audience behind. The cast give fine performances and the direction is very tight, allowing just the right time for a joke to register before rattling on to the next one-liner. It has no pretence of offering any insight into anything, but is an engaging and funny production.