At this year’s re:play festival, comedy pair Katie Norris
and Sinead Parker continue their occasionally macabre and wilfully tasteless sketch
‘n’ song showcase ‘All Our Friends Are Dead’, as seen at the Edinburgh Fringe
and elsewhere. Political correctness is ditched (seriously, nothing and nobody
is out of bounds) in favour of jaw-dropping ‘you can’t say that’ moments driven by the twosome’s strong character-based
comedy – think Little Britain rather than
Mel and Sue.
Amongst audience favourites are corrupt versions of Disney songs,
less ‘bastardised’ and more ‘made orphans of’. For instance, contrived individualism (‘I’m reading Sylvia Plath actually, but in Japanese…’)
and gimmicky personality add-ons (‘Can I
have a latte, and can you write my name in the foam please…’) are hilariously
pulled apart in ‘Everybody Wants To Be A
Twat’. I’m still singing it now.
At this point Norris and Parker’s formidable performance
skills are a small step ahead of their writing but the pace is so rollicking and
the material so broad that if you don’t like one sketch there’s another one just
around the corner with your name on it.
I am personally recovering from exposure to the funny/bleak persona
of Brian, with his carton of juice, urine-stained trousers, and tiny wife in
the attic with nothing but a hotline to Domino’s and a rocking chair to keep
her company. Until now… Single to Royston Vasey please…
