The Origin of Love by Ada & Bron was an absolute delight, and strong contender for my coveted best in Brighton Fringe florette. Ada and Bron are a brilliantly well matched duo, with palpable comic, sexual, absurdist chemistry.
The Origin of Love presents romantic couples in a series of twisted trysts – devoted, gormless, obsessive, illicit, acquistive. Love and the heterosexual couple- pedestalled in our society- are taken through a hilarious and endearingly stupid ringer, using dance, costume, movement and clowning to ridiculous effect.
Scheduled in the Weird Weekend at WundaBarn at The SpiegelGardens, this show was bracketed by improv driven, edge play in which audience discomfort can be quite artfully implicated in the action.
This two-hander felt refreshingly tight, strongly scripted and rehearsed, while not shedding any of the anarchic thrills of quick costume change or risky character comedy. If I learned anything this weekend it’s how much a backwards wig can communicate. And how difficult it is to keep a face mic in place during your 10th outfit change.
Ed Lyness, a mop haired ‘Lurch’ in an ill-fitting Prom tuxedo, provides a live musical score to this Adams family of romances, completing the loop of Ada & Bron’s split second comic timing on his keyboard, stage right. This had practical benefits, with other acts occasionally suffering from missed sound queues, which speaks to the thought-through, well engineered quality of this farce. And hence how easy it was for the audience to lose themselves in the silliness. They animated the audience, with neighbours noisily extolling, and demonstrated how quickly 60 minutes can pass in a fantastic show.
The Origin of Love was a joy to watch- if I could have pressed replay, I would have.
I asked a fellow audience member for a quote:
“So sweet, so silly ,so sexy, so funny, so cute”.
I can’t wait to see what this genius pair do next.
There are just a few days left of the Brighton Fringe Festival, which runs until June 2. There are many more shows to be seen. Visit the website for info and tickets.
Brighton Fringe: Tickets
