Ridiculusmus, Ideas Men

Review in Issue 15-4 | Winter 2003

David Woods and Jon Hough are not afraid to be dangerous, either with
themselves, their audience or their material. Here two Ideas Men in a faceless company attempt to come up with ideas, when they don't have any (except accidentally). "Ideas Men' is a highly effective satire on bureaucracy, office politics and how we are all now meant to be creative. Moreover its subtext is concerned with how to come up with ideas to make a piece of performance, and the danger that you might not have any good ideas.

The two performers are both highly adept, transforming them selves in an eyeblink into a variety of business types (the boss, the secretary, the clock watcher). Repetition and the sense of passing the time in pointless tasks add to the comic effect. Add a large table, two computer keyboards, one of which gets smashed, and two chairs - in which Ridiculusmus create a nightmare world with physical aplomb, vocal dexterity and some pointed slap stick.

Their relationship with their audi ence is both playful and threatening, There is the sense that they are continually teetering on the edge of attacking us, only drawing back at the last second that they are playing with the performed and the real. Ridicu. lusmus are here using comedy as a weapon to challenge the world of business, and ultimately of our human and technological capacities. They are dealing with important material, challenging the notion that we have to be seen to be imaginative, creative, individuals, forever being on the ball and in the process making an imaginative and exhilarating piece of theatre.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Oct 2003

This article in the magazine

Issue 15-4
p. 27