DID you hear the one about the redhead? Because the proper title of the play on in Belltable this Saturday 11 is ‘Adventures of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl’. Playful and eco-warrior friendly, some 30 characters are brought to life through the chimpanzee population of this whacky world set in Africa.
‘Adventures’ is written and performed by Canadian Rebecca Perry.
Its tagline is that “Joanie Little follows her anthropologist dreams with a job at the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania”. The Tanzanian jungle specifically; Perry has scooped prestigious notice at fringe shows from Broadway to Toronto to Edinburgh – Edinburgh shortlisted her for the Sustainable Practice award.
‘Adventures’ is sort of synthesis between a story and character already established, Joannie, sort of a synthesis between Perry and pioneering primatologist Joan Goodall. Perry had done a show called ‘Confessions of a Coffeeshop Girl’ that was based on her experience of working in a café, imagining her wild clientele as animals.
“I am obsessed with Jane Goodall and all the good work she has done. She was the first primatologist to name the chimps she working with, which is now a practice in Zoology. And she gives talks.”
Is there a parallel between the artist’s jungle and café populations? Yes, with Joannie naming her chimps, playing out their humanised characters with accents and crisp direction.
“In ‘Adventures’, there is fun in taking this urban story and turning it upside down and bringing it to the the jungle”. Yes, the 60 minutes “are exhausting but the most thrilling thing at the same time. And I can guarantee jazzy tunes, a co-workers’ showdown and even some romance”. Whatever, this redhead sells out at festivals.
Book on the Belltable’s venue manager www.limetreetheatre.ie, 8pm this Saturday 11.
