More than 30 years ago, a group of women performers got together to put on a variety show consisting of a series of comedy sketches prompted by the notion that female comedians were as scarce as hens teeth.

Hence the name of that original show and the current Hens’ Teeth, playing at Circa Theatre, which follows the same format.

And what is so great about the show, both then and now, is that the women performers not only confidently laugh about themselves, but often about the world around them. [More] 

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In my NBR review back in December 2001 (see full transcript below), I concluded: “As always, Hens’ Teeth has a cosy, friendly, fire-side feel to it. At its best, it is incisive satire by stealth, so sharp you barely feel it slice. But mostly it’s just amiable fun. Fair enough.”

The same applies to this welcome return of Hen’s Teeth at the WTF! – the Women’s Theatre Festival spawned by continuing frustration at the disproportionate representation of women in theatre. This time, however, it plays in the larger Circa One space for two weeks only (previous seasons having sold out well before closing night).

There are 25 performers plus a dance troupe in the ‘moveable feast’ line-up and opening night sees 13 grace the stage in 15 items, with Pinky Agnew as our MC. It has to be said too much time is spent on the introduction, delivering background information that should have been noted in a programme, which is not provided. Hopefully this will be quickly rectified. Also, I find warming us up with how to laugh and clap exercises to be a bit patronising and unnecessary.

That said, Pinky’s pun-strewn and slightly risqué repartee, in the intro and linking the items, does keep us smiling and her style offers welcome respite from the forced hype that usually drives the MCing of stand-up comedy shows. And here, stand-up is the exception rather than the rule.

Darian Takle opens the show proper with the whimsical use of a sheet of newspaper as a percussion instrument to accompany ‘Somebody Stole My Girl’ – and Stage Manager Jocelyn O’Kane is on hand, with her semi-trusty canine assistant, Honey, to clear up.

Like actors returning to Lear later in life, crowd favourite Kate Harcourt is now near the right age to resuscitate her grumpy old biddy Maude Hornby, here extracting great humour from ostensibly reading a promotional blurb for the retirement home she resides in. Her timing and tone are impeccable.

The first stand-up routine finds Sarah Harpur sharing her amusing take on “becoming a mother the wrong way then doing it again the right way”. It’s a very real story anyone can identify with, pitched with just the right level of self-effacement and challenge to our value systems.

April Phillips and Tracy Savage present their subtly searing take on mammograms by impersonating ‘two boobies’. April is all innocent and excited until Tracy gives her a reality check. It’s takes a moment to work out it’s April’s head rather than the prominent ‘booby’ she’s wearing that’s experiencing the ‘tit sandwich’ indignity but the wit of the writing is a highlight – as are their parodic renditions of ‘Mammaries’ and ‘Respect’.

An immigrant from the USA, Susan Gordon from Sunnyside, Queens, NYC (where Donald Trump also allegedly grew up), shares her experience of returning to the States to work on the Hillary Clinton campaign then watching the election results with husband and friends back here in NZ. Her rendition of ‘You Listened to My Story about a Man Named Don’ sums it up well although her coy little “Eeep” at the ‘pussy grab’ moment feels misjudged to me.

Helen Moulder’s Cynthia Fortitude, who has returned to be farewelled countless times, manages to tear herself away from celebrity commitments to honour us yet again with her redoubtable presence, along with her poker-faced, Rachmaninov-loving accompanist Gertrude Rallentando (Rose Beauchamp, who has already delighted us with pre-show ivory-tickling and will do so more in the interval).

Cynthia’s idiosyncratic approximation of Rosina’s aria, ‘Una voce poco fa’ from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is a delight and – divided into Tragic, Comic and Evil groups – we all get to help out with the new opera they are creating, judiciously replacing Italian lyrics with well-known names of operas. A splendid way to bring us to interval.

Undoubted highlight of the evening, for its topicality, spot-on satirical writing and superb impersonation, is Darian Takle’s ‘Melania’: formerly Mrs Trump III, now seeking asylum from the glaring spotlight and a toxic marriage, or rather presenting her credentials to our PM for Entrepreneurial Investor Immigrant status. She also plans to write a memoir – “but what to call it?” Melania tags the routine with a very clever and heartfelt ‘Don’t Cry for Me Aotearoa’.  

Young Ashley Hume (24) from Wellsford – “the Northern equivalent of Foxton – gives us her mildly amusing take on ’Dating’ in small town NZ. Then Drag King Cathie Sheat regurgitates her well-past-his-use-by-date ‘Tony Al Dente’ to remind us of all the gross, predatory, sexist so-called jokes we hoped we’d never be subjected to again (if we ever actually were).

While it has to be said that male stand-up comedy in NZ has long since moved on from this crap, Trump et al, and new generations of college boys, have shown these attitudes do still swirl in the polluted shallows of many male brains. As for the strip … The whole routine doesn’t find the funny-bone – like Barry Humphries’ obese, lecherous and offensive Les Patterson, for example – and afterwards I can’t find anyone who welcomes the inclusion of Tony Al Dente in this show.  

The sublime voice of Jane Keller restores the mood as she reinvents herself as a Life Coach and offers ‘The Dieter’s Prayer’ to her first client. But illustrating a relationship breakup, after 35 years of marriage, with the increasingly nasty male perspective – “I never really liked you, I’m not sorry to see you go” – feels like an odd choice for this show. I expect to hear the ex-wife’s side of the story next but we don’t.

Helen Fletcher offers an intriguing report on her narcolepsy and the weird nocturnal habits it produces. Then Helen Moulder’s Cynthia introduces us to Edie Turkle (Kate Harcourt), her cousin from Hokitika, and as Papagena and Papageno respectively they treat us to the ‘Pa–, pa–, pa–’ duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Delectable.

In the final sketch, Prue Langbein reprises a great favourite from the original shows: ‘Cooking with Condoms’. Her straight-faced innocence in demonstrating their value for Utensil Free Cooking and the clever word-play in the writing adds up to comic gold. A fine finish to a rich repast of entertainments.

And so to the Hen’s Teeth at the WTF! finale: the whole cast – including producer Kate JasonSmith and Stage Manager Jocelyn O’Kane, with ‘Lighting Whiz’ Lisa Maule doubtless singing along in the bio box, cap the night with Robyn Nathan’s original song. ‘A Box of Birds’.

Some stalwarts will be on every night while others rotate to share the remaining spots. Expect at least a dozen very ‘good eggs’ to be laid before you whichever night you choose. (It aims to be two hours including interval, by the way.)

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer