People really do say some weird things on social media.
All the actors do a great job at conveying the sheer ridiculousness of online interaction.
Boy meets girl online, and what begins as a discussion about fantasy art soon devolves into a raunchy RP-inspired mating dance between a ‘goddess’ and her hellish lover, with enough geeky awkwardness to make you cringe and burst out laughing by turns. The straight-faced boy and girl read out their words as they type them into the chat window, replete with ‘stars’ (*), ‘XD’s and typos, while two different actors behind them enact their wild – and hilariously absurd – fantasies on stage.
From an absent-minded flutter of the hand to some embarrassingly ridiculous scenes involving a snake puppet, they always manage to undermine the feelings of longing expressed by the two sexually repressed individuals. All the actors do a great job at conveying the sheer ridiculousness of this virtual interaction.
While the premise of the show is clever, and its jokes usually elicit plenty of laughs from the audience, a little more variety would be welcome. Towards the last 15 minutes, one can’t help but feel that the bawdy humour has already reached its saturation point even as the actors continue to dish us more helpings of the same thing.
Devious Comments certainly doesn’t pretend to be deep, intellectual or even decent, and merely holds up a mirror to the more cringeworthy aspects of communication on social media some of us might be guilty of. While it probably isn’t going to change your life, and is best avoided by the more prudish among us, there is little doubt that it makes for an enjoyable hour of hilarious entertainment.
