Despite the simplicity of their formula - a slapstick two person comedy playing out a traditional British heist gone wrong - Halo Theatre’s The Tale of Nada succeeds neither in fitting the templates of its predecessors, nor in doing anything new with its material. It is puzzling why a theatrical double act would choose to situate itself at the intersection of film successes like Laurel and Hardy’s Hollywood Party and Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast unless its physical presence was really masterful. Disappointingly, Kenneth Gear and Tracy Canavan-Smith who play Ray and Nick, the ill-fated protagonists of the show, fail to enhance their performances enough to compensate for the actor-audience intimacy that accompanies their medium.
This is not to say they act badly. Indeed Gear and Canavan-Smith go through all the required motions of clumsy capering and are even, at times, quite funny. Their high points are great. In one particularly memorable sequence they artfully feign creeping through a building set with alarms. The focus required to tiptoe silently on stage parallels the focus required to tiptoe silently through a building and so, for a few happy minutes, actor and character become one. Unfortunately, these moments are compromised by slippages in other parts of the show when an over-loud shout, or a nervous foot shuffle betrays the illusion. And, unluckily, lovable buffoonery is a genre particularly vulnerable to charges of falsity; the charm must not be broken – Rowan Atkinson must always be Mr Bean.
Moreover, the story itself is frustratingly simple, anodized to an uncomfortable thickness. While he was making us uncomfortable, Mr Bean managed to cleverly exploit the hundred shades of bafflement man is capable of. Laurel and Hardy prove to us how funny trivial combat can be. Arm in arm with these heroes we learnt the true resonance of green Minis and banana splits. But to match these iconic actors Ray and Nick have neither concept nor motif.
Still, one must allow that The Tale of Nada has its promise. Its technical side works well and the constitutionally endearing actors are somewhat redeemed by how tantalizingly close they are to doing well. The thin and earnest Nick is a good complement to tubby, hot-tempered Ray. With a little more complexity and performances that ring just a bit truer, The Tale of Nada might yet prove a tale worth something.
