Sebastian Flange is the invention of James Pratt created no doubt by the performer to express his love of poetry and the slightly insular world of poetry readings. The character of Flange first made presence felt in last year’s “They Shoot Poets Don’t They?” which was a cult hit at La Mama. This year he has returned to perform at the Trades Hall in his new show Super Flange. Super Flange explores all the comedic potential of poetry as the enthusiastic, yet intelligent Flange explains it all to us, his audience. The performance runs on many tangents and in anybody else’s hands it would have been a complete shambles, but Flange (Pratt) holds his audience well. No matter what different directions he travels in he always brings it back to his central theme of his love for poetry and this holds the show together.
Super Flange relies a little on audience participation and this can make or break the show, and on the night I saw it, the audience were particularly frosty. However there’s no need to be, as Flange’s audience participation is light, fun stuff that never seeks to antagonise his audience but instead bring them along for the ride.
This is a show that will grow with each performance and become more dynamic and varied, as it plays off both the rhythms of audience and performer. I suspect in the final weeks of the festival this show will be packing them in, because it is smart and funny and at its core is a performer Flange (Pratt) who has all the hallmarks of the great comedic characters such as Fred Dagg and Sandy Stone and has a lot more life in him yet. Long live the Super Flange!
Pratfall productions
Super Flange
Venue: Trades Hall | 2 Lygon Street, Carlton Sth
Dates: 19th Mar - 12th Apr
Times: Wed-Sat 7.15pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: Full $20, Conc $15
Bookings: 9659 3569 & at the door