Cartoon de Salvo, Here Be Dragons

Review in Issue 10-4 | Winter 1998

One of life's most joyous sights is the vision of adults at play, and Cartoon de Salvo (Molly Bertrand, Brian Logan, and Alex Murdoch) certainly know how to party.

These extremely talented young comic actors seduce their audience into following the delightfully daft tale of three back-packing dragons who one day visit a small town which lies somewhere between Cardiff and Mexico City. All is not well, and small-town bigotry leads to tragedy, but not before a tremendous amount of fun is had on the way. The comedy emanates from a dramatic structure which uses monologue, sketch and physical set-pieces, and from the performers' consummate acting skills. Visual inventiveness is displayed in the use of inexpensive props, such as fragments of umbrellas for dragon's wings.

The team would benefit from a little more physical discipline, but this is a small criticism. Their strength lies in their individual distinctiveness as performers and their collective enjoyment. The fourth wall is broken down, not by the use of self-conscious Brechtian techniques, but by simply allowing the audience to join in the fun.

Come in Vic and Bob, your time is up.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Oct 1998

This article in the magazine

Issue 10-4
p. 20