★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. The Bunker at Fool's Paradise. 7 Mar 2024
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This could well be the slogan of Express Move Me & Scratch Arts, the outfits behind Moist, because it is unchanged from last year, and that is a shame.
Moist is a homoerotic circus show featuring four guys who don’t wear very much and enjoy getting wet and raunchy. The most interesting physical theatre/circus shows have a narrative that holds the performance together and give the audience a structure with which to make sense of the whole thing, at least subliminally.
The premise of Moist is unashamedly thin. The main protagonist is thirsty, very thirsty (and not just for hydration!) and he seeks to quench his thirst any way he can. If one of his former lovers might come to the party and help him out, then so much the better! Did I say thin? I meant tissue thin, but it doesn’t matter, because the audience isn’t there to be cerebrally stretched, they are there for a raunchy good time, and that’s exactly what they get. And, by the way, Fringe HQ advised ticketholders by email that the show’s rating had changed from MA15+ to R18+ !
So, what do you get for your hard-earned coin? You see four men strutting their stuff in orange jockstraps and lavender leotards as they engage in high-energy gymnastics, balancing and tumbling tricks while a pulsating underscore plays throughout and keeps your toes tapping. These guys are sexy and have no problems flaunting their stuff in your face, almost literally. There is lots of water being splashed about, some of it in an artistic way, and on one occasion with a nod to Sandro Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’, but for the most part it is simply with gay abandon.
This show is tongue-in-your-cheek good sexy fun. Plain and simple. If the show comes back next year, let’s hope it includes some new material.
Kym Clayton
When: 7 to 17 Mar
Where: The Bunker at Fool's Paradise
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
