YOU ARE A DOUGHNUT

 

You Are A Doughnut.

Director/Designer/writer/lyricist David Lampard. Composer Mark Simeon Ferguson. Stage Manager Amanda Rowe. Sound designer Rodney Hutton. Performer Rod Schultz as Oesoph A Gus, PJ Oaten as Dewey Dean. Vocal Coach Rosie Hosking. Set Construction Paul Crocker.  The Science Gang. The Q Theatre. Queanbeyan. March 23.

 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 I wish The Science Gang had come to my school to teach me science. Maybe then I would have passed. David Lampard follows his smash hit show The Amazing Alphabet of Science from A to Z with another highly digestible show You Are A Doughnut about the intricacies of the Digestive System. In a crackerjack paced one hour show straight man Oesoph A Gus (Rod Schultz) and funny fall guy Dewey Dean (P.J Oaten) take young and old on an hilarious journey from the mouth to the anus via the oesophagus, the stomach, the duodenum, the colon, the small intestine,the large intestine, the rectum and finally in an explosion of information the anus.

With catchy tunes by composer Mark Simeon Ferguson and witty lyrics by director and writer Lampard You Are A Doughnut is a rollercoaster ride of vaudevillian entertainment with songs, slapstick sketches, corny jokes and full throttled fart and pooh jokes. Oesoph A Gus, bearded and bespectacled is the facts man with a serious intent to teach the facts. Dewey Dean just wants to have fun. They are the perfect odd couple and between them they keep the audience oohing and aahing and groaning when it gets to the poohy bits. At one point the excited audience of 5-12 year olds scream with delight as they are bombarded with a shower of pin pong enzymes. They may forget what an enzyme does but they’ll never forget being pinged and ponged by Dewey Dea. It’s a tonne of fun.

It would be a mistake to think that young audiences will leave with a more insightful understanding of everything that happens on the journey from mouth to bum and beyond. We’ll know that we are “a great big fleshy lump with a remarkable hole running all the way through your middle – your digestive system.” In the contest between Oesoph A Gus and Dewey Dean, Dean wins out even drawing the more sedate Oesoph A Gus into his cray, wild comedy routines, songs and dances. You Are A Doughnut is a funny, clever and entertaining introduction to this biological lesson to raise awareness of the digestive sytem. It’s the magical way to grab the interest and then let the real teachers take it from there to fill in the information hole. Once the students have had a taste of You’re a Doughhnut they’ll be hungry to swallow the rest of this fascinating diet of knowledge about the digestive season. And at just one hour, the show is long enough to digest the information, the comedy and another Science Gang success.