23/02/1989 – 04/03/1989
Venue
Presented by Scratch! Theatre
A must for Uni students and other children, this show has everything children like: greed, violence, swearing, selfishness, death, clowns and fat people. It is also jampacked with pungent wit and biting social commentary to appeal to the most grown-up tastes. Jonathan Marshall and John Ryan recalls that Bernard Caleo as UBU commenced the show by miming defacating on stage. The audience was provided with an old knife or other item of cutlery as a ‘ticket’ and as they passed the door, a cast member, Matthew Jones, snatched it off them and bent it in a vice before returning it (i.e. it was ‘stamped’). A broken toaster was used as a smoke machine because, in Guy’s words, it was “that kind of show”. The venue stank of burnt toast.
The show used a very large cast. All those who auditioned performed in the production, even if only in the armies. Le Couteur noted, “weapons for battle scenes will include cut-out guns and plastic kitchen implements”. The armies were differentiated by coloured t-shirts and life-saver caps. The production used mime. Financial details were also included in the application for funding.
