Midlands Art Theatre (MAC) Birmingham – 20th October 2021.
Reviewed by Nadia Dodd
3***
Cupid’s Revenge, the autumn tour from the New Art’s Club covers just 13 dates over a few weeks nationwide. Tom Roden and Pete Shenton really show their commitment and love to dance, theatre and comedy in the new production.
It’s a story of love but not really a story, its more of a physical poem. It takes words such as love, being and holding then putting them into scenarios that we all find ourselves in at some point during our lifetime, with friends, family and even strangers. It’s about connections that we have and how we show or say our feelings.
What is love? This show shoots Cupid’s arrow into the heart of that very question.
I loved the physical side of the show where both Tom and Pete expressed themselves through movement and made the (quite small) audience giggle.
There were lots of energy, movement and silliness compacted into the one hour production where both cast members remain on stage the whole time.
The stage is covered with artificial grass, has two deck chairs on one side and a partially buried bright red love heart which is also illuminated. Lots of references to Llandudno Pier so that’s where the deck chairs must be set. The set was designed by Will Holt and is very simple and minimalistic but when you see the amount of leaping and jumping around that both Tom and Pete do, that’s why! A shout out also to Lucy Hansom as the lighting designer, very effective indeed.
There are fantastic sound effects used throughout the show, some quite relaxing music and another piece set in a club/disco/party – the sound of them being hit with Cupid’s bow and arrow was also very clever.
You can see the guys have a great working relationship and have put a lot of hard work rehearsing the show, there possibly was some improvisation at points in the performance, where they both simply bounce off each other.
They started working together in 1998 creating dance based comedy shows and have performed internationally over time.
Lots of topics mentioned quite randomly within the hour show, going from politics to sexuality, then gender to religion. There was at least one topic that each person in the auditorium tonight could relate to.
The show touches on great ideas and makes the simple act of holding hands a perfect gesture of love.