By Luke Voogt
Elise and Tony Dahl “took a big risk” bringing a seven-foot mutant freak back from Edinburgh, according to Geelong director Doug Mann.
The Theatre of the Damned founders loved Toxie when they saw him on stage, Mann explained.
So they brought Toxie’s stage show, The Toxic Avenger, to Geelong.
“The play’s an absolute riot and they thought something like this was worth a chance in Geelong,” Mann said.
The plot centres on giant Toxie fighting global warming and wooing a blind librarian with his superhuman strength and massive heart.
“Geelong’s next big theatrical export”, Liam Erck, brought Toxie to life, Mann said.
“He’s absolutely brilliant.”
Shani Clarke, who Mann described as the “most talented comedian in Geelong by a long way,“ played the librarian.
“I can’t take my eyes off her because she does a brilliant job of playing blind and being funny at the same.”
Erck and Clarke perform as several characters each, as does fellow actress Alicia Miller as a villainous mayor of New Jersey and Toxie’s mother in the same scene.
“It’s one of the best bits of theatrical comedy I’ve come across in my many years in the caper,” Mann said.
He saw in the play parallels with the screen adaptation of comic Deadpool.
“It’s part farce and part cartoon musical. The humour is in your face and it uses massive comic stereotypes.”
The Toxic Avenger opened at Shenton Theatre yesterday and closes this Saturday.
