If you’re dealing in absolutes, you’d better make sure your show delivers. All or Nothing? falls a little short.
The premise of a mime meeting a person living in the physical world is suitably charming. Set to a soundtrack concocted for a long-lost Woody Allen film during his Annie Hall era, the piece is lifted out of the mediocre and into something pushing the realms of decent. The story is simple enough: mime meets girl and hilarity ensues. However, actor James Callàs Ball’s portrayal of mime doesn’t quite hit the mark. Perhaps he has spread himself too thin - also being producer and writer of the piece. His mime does muster a few laughs when, after a brief argument of mimed threats and a pie in the face, the music takes a Marvin Gaye ‘sexual healing’ tone and he emerges as a proud cock to seduce the lady.
Praise must go to the women herself, though. We first see actress Jasmine Blackborow emerging from a pile of blankets and newspapers and from that point on she brings depth to what might be a parody of mime. At times Blackborow reminded me of silent movie stars, her facial movements delicate and precise; add to this big bambi eyes and clumsy limbs and you have an endearing counter force to Callàs Ball’s mime.
At one point during a touching romantic moment, the lady holds her arms outstretched inviting a hug. The mime approaches and takes an imaginary box from between her open arms before realising his error and wrapping his arms around her. More moments like this would have lifted the piece out of the average and into the superlative. It feels there is more to be explored and if the Callàs company worked a little longer on perfecting those ideas, it could really be a promising little farce.
