Rageboy (or, Rage against the latrine)

Okay, this one's a little late. I think I caught Rageboy sometime last week as part of Melbourne's Midsumma festival; I have forgotten - much like the play.

Big cast; polished production; meandering, meaningless script.

Toby is apparently enraged at life. Struck with polio at an early age, agitated by his father, annoyed by his best friend (oh, hang on that was me being annoyed by her atrocious American accent), cracked onto by his institutionalised grandfather, Toby has a lot to be enraged about. But he doesn't seem to be that bothered. There is something thrown in about the apocalypse by the two (slightly incestuous) JW siblings but it all ends up being rather meaningless.

It is difficult to say that Rageboy was appalling because it is clear that it was extremely well received by the opening night audience. It is true that the show, which began life as a Melbourne Uni production, is very funny in parts. Yes it has a kind of absurdist charm but it was so incredibly episodic that by in the end it felt like a dose of The Comedy Company or Skithouse and was just as hit and miss.

Props to the few characters who managed to imbue their roles with some real, and much needed, charm. The father's blind albino girlfriend deserves special mention. Overall though, apart from the few funny scenes, an extremely disappointing evening.

Run a mile (or at least you should have, it is all over now. Thank SBLJ!)