Adelaide Fringe review 2017: The Executioner

THE sole actor, Julian Jaensch, isn’t boisterous or witty, his populist drivel coming from observation, not education. It begs the question, what is art? Maybe too, given the waste of an hour, what is the Fringe?

The Executioner

Theatre, *

Basem3nt, Featherstone Place, March 1-4 and March 15-18

THERE’S an A-list British comedian, the Oxford educated Al Murray, best known for his persona of the ‘pub landlord’, a xenophobic bully happy to let the world know his views whether the world wants it or not.

Murray bangs on about the shortcomings of women, ‘foreigners’ and the socially inept, though being tongue-in-cheek he does it very well, funny and close to the bone in turn.

The executioner here, a man on the cusp of another lawful killing, reappraises society in much the same spirit and target, a stream of consciousness venting his hate of everything and everyone, most notably himself.

The sole actor, Julian Jaensch, fiddles with a rope as the audience enters and then fidgets all night, up and down from his stool in tandem with his vitriol.

Only the executioner, unlike the landlord, isn’t boisterous or witty, his populist drivel coming from observation not education.

It begs the question, what is art? Maybe too, given the waste of an hour, what is the Fringe?

Well acted, but this is dark, depressing stuff with no discernible lesson to be learned.

Ultimately, what’s the point?