Having successfully toured The Faulty Towers Dining Experience, their homage to the iconic BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, around Australia and across the UK for a couple of decades now, Interactive Theatre International have devised an original work in Confetti and Chaos.
It’s a similar set up, with the show being set as a ‘surprise’ wedding reception this enables the serving of the three course meal that comes as part of the ticket price to be integrated into the immersive experience, where cast interact with the audience as part of the performance that uses the whole space as their stage.
Being an audience member in Confetti and Chaos feels a lot like being a plus-one at a real life wedding. You don’t know the bride or the groom, or really anyone else there, but over the course of the event the full horror of the universal nature of family dysfunction reveals itself to everyone in the room.
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None of us can escape relationship issues, whether that’s between family, friends or lovers, we all have our quirks and quibbles, our insecurities and insufferable moments, but love can conquer all that.
While this earnest and sweet idea drives Confetti and Chaos, the energy of its expression feels more like a bank robber has just carjacked your vehicle to make their getaway – there’s a lot of running, shouting and unhinged behaviour. There is indeed both confetti and chaos all around you.
A very broad comedy intended for a mainstream audience, the characters are almost cartoonish in their over-the-top ways (the best man accidentally gets high, strips on a table top and sobers up almost as quickly) as they deal with plot twists and turns that rival the best of any daytime soap.
The cast of four play multiple characters each – bride and groom, parents of bride, best man, uninvited relatives and there’s even a romantic sub-plot involving two inept waiters – and they also work in some live singing and plenty of pop music. The utterly ridiculous middle-aged aunt turned social media influencer is a highlight.
There were a few first-night clunky gear changes and it took a bit for both the performers and audience to warm up to each other, but the unrelenting overt silliness holds charm and gets more laughs than you’d expect to see at a real wedding reception.
Confetti and Chaos runs at the Stamford Plaza Melbourne from Tuesday April 18 to Sunday April 23. Buy tickets here.
