Reflex Action is a quick-fire send-up of theatrical conventions, traditions, and techniques. The plot concerns two characters, Itchy and Knee, who discuss the mystery of a place called Woodpecker Plateau, which has no woodpeckers and is not a plateau. As they await the entrance of their arch-nemesis, Professor Unfrenabulous, they must endure choral drama, tableaux, body-bag dream sequences, a nineteenth-century operetta, stichomythia, monologues, long pauses, Shakespeare, Beckett and Pinter.
The production opens on a bare stage, which is intended to make a statement. At the back of the stage are the words of Peter Brook: I can take any empty space and make it into a stage. Itchy and Knee appear and begin to discuss theatrical conventions, including taking very long pauses for dramatic effect. They are then replaced by another, identically dressed, couple in order to demonstrate that an audience will assume that two different actors dressed identically actually represent the same character. These two use the technique of stichomythia, where two characters speak single lines of dialogue alternately and rhythmically.
They rapidly satirise Shakespeare and Beckett (were waiting for somebody, but we cant say who) then move on to Cats, Phantom Of The Opera and Gilbert and Sullivan.
This is a fun production, which would be particularly enjoyed by anyone who loves theatre (but doesnt take it too seriously).
