Hilarious new play takes a walk with troubled Goon
Monday, September 10, 2007
Alcoa 2007 Theatre Season continues at Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) with Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Ying Tong: A Walk With the Goons – a fabulously funny and deeply moving production centred on the legendary radio comedy program, The Goon Show.
The anarchic comedy of The Goon Show has had generations splitting their sides since its creation in 1951. Roy Smiles’ brilliant new play captures the madcap spirit of The Goons but also takes us on a darker journey into the fevered mind of the great comic genius Spike Milligan.
Described as “astonishingly funny” (Telegraph, UK), “hilarious and deeply moving” (Financial Times, UK), Ying Tong is a tribute to an exceptionally talented but troubled man. Milligan, much-loved in Australia, has been dubbed “The Godfather of Modern Comedy” and voted the funniest person of the millennium in a BBC poll. The legacy of The Goon Show and Spike Milligan’s comic genius can be seen in generations of British comedy from Monty Python, The Goodies, The Young Ones and Little Britain.
Set partly in a psychiatric ward and partly in a radio studio, Ying Tong shows Spike grappling with his demons while being exhorted by the ambitious Peter Sellers to crank out one more series.
As reality and the surreal world of The Goons collide, the play morphs into a pastiche Goon Show called Journey To the Centre of Milligan’s Brain in which we meet all our favourite characters – Eccles, Bluebottle, Bloodnok, Count Moriarty et al – as Neddy Seagoon goes on an epic quest to rescue Spike’s lost marbles. Will Spike ever write again? Or will he be consumed by his own creations?
A group of Australia’s foremost actor-comedians play The Goons; Jonathan Biggins as Peter Sellers; Tony Harvey as the Goons’ announcer Wallace Greenslade; David James as Harry Secombe and Geoff Kelso as Spike Milligan.
Directed by Richard Cottrell, himself steeped in the culture of The Goons, Sydney Theatre Company brings Ying Tong to life for Geelong audiences from September 20-22 in the Ford Theatre.
Following rave reviews from its recent performances in Melbourne, don’t miss this agonisingly funny show at GPAC. Book here on the website or phone 5225 1200 for tickets.