Words: Robert Parker-White

Jane and Ange have a problem – they can’t agree on whether their show should be about jazz music or if it should be about the bucket of blood looming ominously at the back of the stage.

This is the premise that begins the 55 minutes of deranged fun where we follow Australian comedy duo Jane Watt and Ange Lavoipierre as they desperately try to come up with some kind of show. They eventually settle on the theme of motherhood, although this is never fully accomplished either.

There are a lot of ideas explored here although none of them are ever fully cooked. High points include a laudatory ballad about Bunnings (an Australian hardware store, for the uninitiated). A series of “horror” stories told as hilarious one-liners and a fun Spartacus-like ending. But there are some awkward low points like when the duo intensely rattle around a piggy bank hassling donations out of the audience for Ange’s “medical condition.”

The clowning is well observed and the pair are genuinely endearing. Watts has a childlike naivety and is strikingly watchable whilst Lavoipierre is more straight but still offbeat and quirky. The show is funny but at times senselessly erratic and more than once I was left wondering what the point of it was.

Jazz Or A Bucket of Blood is certainly not for everyone, but anyone with a taste for the surreal will be in absurdist heaven.

Jazz Or A Bucket of Blood
Underbelly George Square, Wee Coo
20.50
15-27 Aug