racks in the Garden
**** The Scotsman CLAIRE SMITH

IT'S NOT often you see a techie creasing up - but the girl behind the
sound desk was squealing with laughter watching this Kiwi double act.

Arguments over missed sound cues are just one of the things that go
wrong in this show about a comedy duo on the path to self-destruction -
which is also a metaphor for the current state of the world.

It takes real skill to be able to screw up deliberately and still be funny
but Jo Randerson and Gentiane Lupi are confident enough comic actresses
to pull it off. Like a masterclass in the art of failed comedy, the duo show us
just about every way comedians can make a mess of things.

We see the hastily prepared stand-up routine inexpertly scattered
with inaccurate local references. They try to get political but don't know
enough about world events and end up inadvertently insulting the audience.
And since this is a Fringe festival, they make an ill-advised stab at
profound physical theatre. As their routines get more and more unsuccessful,
Randerson and Lupi's relationship backstage also begins to fall apart.
We suspect they might be drinking to excess, witness their emotional
breakdowns and hormonal crises and realise they are beginning to make
unpleasant personal asides about each other.
Without any reasonable dialogue the concepts behind the routines get more
and more outlandish and it doesn't help that they have a selection of the
worst and most moth-eaten props and costumes ever seen.

Finally, things get so bad that Randerson and Lupi are openly trying to
sabotage each other's performances and smashing up each other's vision
about how the act can work. I wondered how they were going to resolve
their differences without resorting to violence. But Randerson and Lupi pull
out an utterly absurd solution which had me laughing all the way home.

There were only three of us in the audience but we were all cracking up.
By the end of their run Randerson and Lupi should be playing to full houses.

**** The Scotsman CLAIRE SMITH