CLAUDIA O’DOHERTY: Monster of the Deep 3D (Aus)

Club Ivy, The Garden Club, 13B Dixon St, Wellington

04/05/2010 - 08/05/2010

NZ International Comedy Festival 2010

Production Details


SYDNEY’S DARLING OF COMEDY MAKES HER NZ DEBUT IN WELLINGTON 
One of Australia’s brightest new comedy stars, Claudia O’Doherty brings her first ever show to New Zealand audiences. Join Claudia, the last surviving member of a small deep-sea colony called Aquaplex, as she gives her ridiculous cultural presentation on that lost society.
Claudia O’Doherty is a member of Sydney’s theatrical comedy group ‘Pig Island’.  In 2007, Pig Island’s sketch show, The Glass Boat won the prestigious ‘Golden Gibbo’ (Best Independent Production) and was nominated for ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Their next show, Simply Fancy, garnered critical acclaim and full houses at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008. 
Claudia’s debut solo show, Monster of the Deep 3D won ‘Best Comedy’ and the ‘Brisbane Comedy Festival Award’ at the 2009 Melbourne Fringe Festival.  Her first book, 100 Facts About Pandas, co-authored with comedian David O’Doherty, was released in Australia by Random House on 1 December.
Monster of the Deep 3D is perfect for the audience member looking for something just a little bit different at this year’s festival. Combining models, scientific diagrams, dance and ‘dream helmets’, it is easy to see why this show is being praised by critics and fans alike. 
“Singular, cunning and actually funny. This show is of the quality for which one hopes but rarely finds… This wonderful and peculiar woman has the makings of a nerd pin-up. Go and enjoy her strange show.” (**** The Age)

Dates: Tues 4 – Sat 8 May, 7pm
Venue: Club Ivy, The Garden Club, 13B Dixon St, City
Tickets: Adults $20, Conc $16, Groups 6+ $18
Booking: Ticketek , 0800Ticketek www.ticketek.co.nz
Show Duration: 1 hour

1hr

Completely fruit loopy idea is genius

Review by Maryanne Cathro 04th May 2010

In the world of the comedy festival, stand up is the primary solo genre. Every now and then however, there is a solo show that defies genrifying. Like Toby Hadoke’s Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf last year, Claudia O’Doherty’s Monster of the Deep 3D tries something completely different.

The publicity tells us that Claudia is the last surviving member of a small colony that lived in a deep-sea habitat called Aquaplex. The show is a lecture about her life in Aquaplex.

Claudia the character is in her 20’s, and was born in Aquaplex and knew nothing of surface life until the day she was saved by an aircraft carrier after the explosion that destroyed her world and all its other inhabitants. 

Look, this may sound like a completely fruit loopy idea, and it is. But it is genius. Claudia is exactly how you would expect a 20 something woman to be who has lived in a rarefied environment and is determined to share it with you, even though as she admits to the audience, the scientists should be doing it, not a dolphin trainer like her. But they’re dead!

This clever show and its subtexts of sinister goings on in Aquaplex, of low social functioning and 70’s time warp fashion, is funny on so many levels. It is original and offbeat, it entertains rather than shocks, and frequently delights.

Claudia O’Doherty is an absolute treat to watch. Her ebullience, ingenuousness and awkwardness are completely convincing but cannot be the true traits of the subversive mind behind this clever show.

For something completely different this comedy fest, don your metaphorical scuba gear and get on down to Club Ivy to swim with the dolphin trainer. It’s a blast!

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