Above The Arts Theatre 16 – 28 May. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
The Quentin Dentin Show is a wonderfully weird rock musical that takes a skewed and scathing look at the foibles of modern life.
Stagnating in a dead end relationship, Nat and Keith accidently summon the supernatural therapist Quentin Dentin to their flat. His methods are unusual to say the least, and just what is his hidden agenda?
The show starts quietly – as the audience takes their seats, the 3 piece band (Mickey Howard, Archman Wolfie and Henry Carpenter – writer, composer and musical director) plays waiting room muzak while 3 eccentric white clad chaacters explore the place like childlike robots. Nat and Keith are introduced, Quentin Dentin appears and the show explodes into one of the most unpredictable and insane hours of your life.
Quentin finds the couple two friends and makes them live out their fantasies – using only a battered old sofa as a prop, we are taken to art galleries, under the sea, and outer space – but nothing makes them happy, and nobody likes you if you’re not happy!
The story is basically bonkers, but brilliant – any show that includes songs about lemons, space (“there’s literally no pressure!”) and the ocean (that plays like “Under the Sea” on a bad acid trip), showcases the worst gold lamé suit ever created and makes everything that happened to Alice in Wonderland seem completely logical is a sure fire hit.
Luke Lane is phenomenal as Quentin. It’s as if someone distilled John Barrowman, Edmund Blackadder, Billy Graham, Jerry Springer and Marge Proops, added a gazillion blue Smarties and shook vigorously. He belts out his songs and is hysterical as he becomes more and more manic when his methods keep failing. His lines are delivered with sly and oily charm at first but soon he is threatening to insert stress eggs into Nat and Keith’s bodies, twitching and shouting “It’s not fascism if it’s good for you!”
Shauna Riley and Jamie Tibke are great as Nat and Keith – more an owner/pet relationship than two adults as he bounds around the set like a puppy. Felix Denton and Lydia Costello as Friends 1 and 2 are full of energy, very funny and pop up all over the place.
A fantastic production. You don’t need therapy to be happy, just go see The Quentin Dentin Show.