OH OH is an hour of beautiful, uplifting, delightful playfulness. Go see it. If I didn’t have a minimum word count to fill, I’d leave it at that, but this needs to be at least 300 words so, here we go.
An hour of beautiful, uplifting, delightful playfulness
After their multi-award winning, international hit, PSS PSS, Camilla Pessi and Simone Fassari of Compagnia Baccalà have returned with an hour of pure joy. Two characters share the stage and pass their time alternately entertaining and antagonising each other in a show of clowning, slapstick, and circus that harks back to the work of Buster Keaton, Fellini, and Charlie Chaplin. Although this is a performance steeped in the history of clowning, it feels effortlessly contemporary and original.
Opening with Fassari asleep on a chair, Pessi descends from the flies on a rope ladder to awaken him and encourage some playtime. Fassari cuts an intriguing figure with his expressive face, one moment hangdog and bewildered, the next childlike and delighted while Pessi is the mischievous imp, quick to cause a little chaos, instigate a competition or throw a fit. Yet both of these characters are clearly sweethearts with no real malice towards each other. There’s some lovely business with taking off and putting on coats that sets the stage for the ongoing rivalry between these two. It’s a classic trope of clowning and to see it presented with such skill and grace is a thrill.
As the show progresses, there’s chaos with silver balls and wastepaper baskets, fights over sitting privileges, and accordion and trumpet playing. Adding in some spectacular acrobalance and a smaller accordion seems to round out the perfection and we’re left where we started; with Fassari asleep on a chair, and Pessi ascending to the flies on a rope ladder leaving us with the impression that this is their everyday, a Beckett-inspired existential loop of happiness.
