Source : the age
By Daniel Herborn
When Alexei Toliopoulos chanced upon a decades-old repeat episode of The Movie Show on an idle weekday, he had little inkling it would lead to one of the most talked-about comedy shows of this year’s festival season.
Not only did the 2003 episode see Margaret Pomeranz wax lyrical about 2 Fast, 2 Furious, it also saw her and co-host David Stratton urge viewers to take action over the classification board’s decision to ban the Larry Clark-directed Ken Park.
Alexei Toliopoulos (left) and Zachary Ruane as SBS film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton.Credit: Tahira DB
Pomeranz would later try to stage an illegal screening of the movie at Balmain Town Hall before police intervened.
Now, Toliopoulos – best known for his comic investigative podcasts and TV appearances on the likes of Question Everything – has teamed up with Aunty Donna member Zach Ruane to explore the headline-making saga.
Blending energetic comedy, audiovisual elements and verbatim theatre, Refused Classification is compelling – hard to describe, but easy to enjoy.
“It’s an iconic story in Australian film history,” Toliopoulos explains. “Going back to it, I couldn’t believe how vivid it was, and how much it had stuck with me.”
While a lesser show may have become didactic about the value of the film or the dangers of censorship, Ruane says the pair wanted to leave space for the audience to draw their own conclusions.
“I love the notion that if you can convey anything in a very simple, clear way, there’s no reason to make it as art. Art lives in the ambiguity.”
Toliopoulos dons a silver wig and a chunky necklace to channel his hero, Margaret Pomeranz, while Ruane – better known for his wild-eyed, manic sketch comedy – plays the buttoned-up Stratton.
“He’s fundamentally a different kind of person to me,” Ruane acknowledges.
“But I really enjoyed the process and challenge (of playing him). I had this acting teacher who had this metaphor: the faster a spinning top goes, the more it appears to be still. With a character like David, the temptation is to play him smaller, but he actually has all this energy and all these ideas … they’re just contained within this very calm, quiet, collected guy.”
Toliopoulos has been around comedy for a long time but hadn’t thrown himself into a touring show, largely because he is the carer for his mother, who lives with Parkinson’s disease.
“I’ve always felt it would be irresponsible to go and do something like this, but things have been in a good place. My mum was encouraging me to go and try something I’ve always wanted. I feel like I’ve reconnected with that part of myself, and it feels very enriching.”
And what do the famous reviewers make of the play? Stratton was unmoved, Pomeranz was enthusiastic.
“I was trying to explain: ‘It’s going to be funny, but we don’t make fun of you. I’m a documentarian, so I took all the research seriously. It’s all in good taste’, Toliopoulos says. “Then she said, ‘Oh, Alexei, I would much prefer some bad taste!’”
Refused Classification is at Factory Theatre from April 30 to May 4 as part of Sydney Comedy Festival.
