You Are A Doughnut: When Science And Music Forms A Comedy Hit ~ Adelaide Fringe 2023 Review

[Kids & Family/Comedy ~ AUS] The Virago at Gluttony – Rymill Park, Sat 25 Feb, 2023. You Are a Doughnut is what happens when you mix musical theatre, comedy, physical comedy, our body’s organs and excretions together! It’s a riot of fun from ingestion right through to the waste end. The idea is that like a doughnut we’re soft and squishy with a hole right through the middle, though for us, the hole is our whole digestive system. The audience is treated to the mish-mash of what happens when we have not one, but two relief teachers – yes, they’ve been double booked. It’s biology and they have both prepared lesson plans around the digestive system. But that’s the end of the similarities! Clearly they have very different ideas about how children learn, one wants to teach in the old fashioned way and other wants us to learn through play. There are plenty of interactive elements to the show, including arm and action spelling to a sing along song (think YMCA, but change it to VOMIT) and you’re engaged having some fun with the all of the audience while learning some of the details about when things go wrong with our digestion. Though in fact, as is pointed out, this is all about things going right in our digestive system to protect us from having eaten something that is likely going to make us even sicker if we don’t vomit! We’re treated to the scientific names of the elements and organs of the digestive system, often they are repeated in choruses etc., all the way from mouth to anus – and, of course, there are fart and poo jokes galore along the way. The highlight for me was their sense of comic timing, particularly when the presentation takes a turn towards physical comedy – it was very funny and this for young and old. The idea that our digestive system has lots of different elements and organs working together and that we need to look after it was certainly part of the show. A toilet became a disaster area when one of the props (a food mash called ‘brown’) that was brown and lumpy ended up everywhere. Luckily there was a machine that dispensed copious amounts of toilet paper quickly – enough to clean it all up! The whole show was a roller coaster of fun and information and an hour was up in no time at all! Though I would have liked the addition of an introduction to bacteria and that we do have good bacteria and how to look after it. 4.5 stars Clayton Werner You Are A Doughnut continues at The Virago at Gluttony – Rymill Park, at various times, until Sun 19 Mar. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets. #Clothesline_Mag #ADLfringe