Reviews

Excess Baggage

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16 August 2011

What could be a very interesting piece of theatre completely flops here. The premise of Excess Baggage is potentially very strong; a couple of newlyweds are left minding a stranger’s bag in an airport. This could be witty, fresh and quite tense, and it bills itself as a farce, but sadly the only farce here is quite how poor this production is.

The writing is clichéd, has no flow, and occasionally verges on the racist. It doesn’t deal with any subject matter subtly or tastefully, and almost all of the dialogue is shallow and unbelievable. There is little depth in character available for the actors to play off, yet they manage to eradicate the little flair the writing has, and make everything worse.

These are shoddy performances; the actors are awkward, have no comic timing to speak of, and even fluff a number of lines. There is no believable chemistry between the couple, and the bizarre supporting cast are shockingly wooden; their very presence seems utterly pointless.

One cannot begin to care, let alone form opinions on these characters; this is a truly dire show.

– Chris Wheeler