How To Art comedy review: Horny, hungry and fully ripe
Silliness abounds in this excitable interrogation of the art world
Clowning shows at this year’s Fringe just got even more appealing, as New Zealand company Ratbags riff on the 2019 artwork ‘Comedian’ by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and the outlandish commodification of the art world. Even self-identified cultural luddites would instantly recognise Katie Burson and Georgie Llewellyn dressed as bananas and literally gaffer-taped to a wall, and realise that a whole bunch of fruit-flavoured hijinks are on the menu. This pair are horny, hungry and fully ripe for any manner of potassium-fuelled mischief.
Once released from their sticky predicament, Burson and Llewellyn set about their secretive sojourns around the gallery, dodging the attentions of officious curator Bronwyn Ensor. Bumping and grinding with the fellow artworks and frequently enlisting help from the audience, the bananas use their outrageous antics to give Ensor the slip. On stage, the action is like a cross between Mr Bean and Night At The Museum: super silly with a childlike innocence (once they stop rutting each other), poking fun at what passes for artistic hoity-toity.
Those forays into the crowd are where the show works beautifully. Both curator and bananas revel in manipulating and contorting the unwilling, knowing exactly how far to push the situation. There’s even time for an eye-watering real-life auction, flogging merch in a true case of life imitating art. Although the concept might begin to spoil slightly over the course of an hour, How To Art’s daft energy keeps things fresh. Best pick them up before they’re past their sell-by date.
How To Art, Underbelly Cowgate, until 30 August, 9.40pm; picture: Jake Dennis.