It’s Saturday night and we’re at BATS Propeller Stage to see Sunday Morning Gothic’s Apocalyptic Us.    

Two attractively Gothic characters, Audrey Porne and Rueben Todd, promise to give us the lowdown on sex, death and being beautiful. I’m pretty sure that’s the order they put them in. 

“We haven’t had good sex since the Salem witch trials,” is how Audrey sets us up for the kind of comments we’re going to hear. Audience reaction to this first one is a good indicator of an enthusiastic reception for this pair.

Any reviewer would be hard put to resist quoting best lines because there are many. Their macabre quality enhances the humour, as does the self-deprecation.  

Dialogues are interspersed with passages of individual observation. It’s difficult to say which is the more amusing.

We know we’re in for an especially good time when Rueben, as a customer, gets into conversation with Audrey, on the checkout at a supermarket. “I’d like to return this one-night stand,” he says. A gorgeous haggle ensues.

These two display well-honed skills of both scripting and delivery. They’ve even got a message: we’re all going to die, so just do it. No-one minds such a clichéd message when it comes wrapped in such a provocatively humorous package.

If you want to find out why you shouldn’t sit next to a beautiful person on the bus, what medication does to your sex drive and why Audrey hopes to be wearing a cowboy hat when she dies, come up out of your grave if necessary and get along to Apocalyptic Us.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Sunday Morning Gothic, Audrey Porne and Reuben Todd, give a very laconic performance of Apocalyptic Us at 10 Bar that feels a bit like being at Sunday brunch with your neighbours who you don’t know very well; weird cousins from out of town, explaining that all that really matters is sex and death. It’s a provocative thought and I am charmed by their dedication to proving it.

Their insults are deliciously venomous and beatifically received. They switch from monologues to duologues with charm and deep depression. They have a tough crowd of very mixed sorts of people – I spend some time analysing the make-up of the crowd and overthinking what has drawn them to listen to a pair of beautiful Goths talk about their perspective on life. I come to no conclusion about this.

Porne and Todd are undeniably attractive and morose humans and their exploration and explanation of the difficulties and pleasure this lifestyle brings is engaging. They riff off each other with the ease of long acquaintances and possible former lovers, and back each other up when the crowd is slow to respond. They are desultory and pointed all at the same time, never giving up the air of unconcern while shooting their barbs at each other and occasionally making a political point.

It is a sort of poetry of desolation, with deadpan delivery.

My conclusion: would watch again.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer