Sydney Reviews

This school holidays, Roald Dahl’s Twits are at it again in all their glorious grossness at the Sydney Opera House. Expect farts galore and boogers in abundance as these two favourite characters are brought to life by Shake & Stir Theatre Co.

The Twits play the most heinous tricks on each other, and this production does a wonderful job of highlighting the ribald banter between them and their unrelenting dishonourable behaviour. Eyeballs fly in slow motion, Mrs Twit goes scratching and screeching through the air, and frogs are tucked betwixt sheets.

Judy Hainsworth is brilliantly revolting as Mrs Twit. Her cackle is callous, her manners are monstrous, and her performance is packed with the wild energy such a low-down, dirty, inhumane character deserves. Hainsworth seemed to enjoy the role almost as much as Mrs Twit enjoyed feeding her husband worms in his spaghetti. She revels in the diabolical character, and it was a joy to watch her become the “dark-minded person who only cared about herself” that Dahl described.

Kieran McGrath brings Mr Twit to life in all his filthy glory. His ferocious farts deliver as much chaos as comedy. A silhouetted toilet scene had the crowd in hysterics as bottom burps blast Mr Twit off the seat with full force.

The story of these two repulsive humans is told by three circus folk: Maverick (Ryan Hodson), Claudette (Billy [Bridget] Fogarty), and Rex (Johnny Balbuziente). They are the archetypal performers, a magician ringleader, a contortionist, and a strongman, and their job is a vital one. They protect us from the true gruesomeness of this disastrous pair. Hodson plays Maverick, and he holds the reins of the story. If his magic were a metaphor, it would be that he lets us see the smoke from the gaseous depths of bottoms but protects us from the smell. Fogarty and Balbuziente are well matched to help carve out the narrative and support the audience in this wicked tale.

The three also play the Muggle-Wumps, who are the underdogs, or should I say undermonkeys, of this story. They play the family of monkeys that have been exploited and enslaved by the Twits, and it is their daring and quick thinking that leads to the demise of the devious pair. Hodson, Fogarty and Balbuziente are playful in their storytelling, and Fogarty gets the added joy of becoming the infamous Roly-Poly Bird, who is given not wings but wheels to illuminate her fantastical abilities.

Joining me on this adventure was young Elsa, 6, who, when asked if she would recommend the show to her friends, replied: “You have to go inside the Opera House to see this show. I laughed so much when Mr Twit did several farts on the toilet, you could see the whole thing! Out of ten I give it twenty … no, I changed my mind, a hundred. One hundred out of ten.”

And really, this holiday, you can’t not see a show that gets 100 out of 10. Says it all, really.