Meet Ginger and Red; the brother-and-sister team left carrying The Furze Family Variety Hour, after the others left, died, or became accountants. Nevertheless, the show must go on!
Starring Leon Cain and Helen Cassidy as the dysfunctional but loveable brother and sister combination, The Furze Family Variety Hour is a return to the good old-fashioned days of vaudeville routines with all the razzle-dazzle of the theatre; a postmodern homage to the Golden Age of slapstick comedy channelling all the brilliance of Lucille Ball and Jerry Lewis, sandwiched between a Kurt Vonnegut novel.
It's basically a lot of vaudeville and old-school style comedy skits and clowning numbers,” Leon says. “We've done three creative developments over the last three years. The last one in Brisbane was with Helen Cassidy late last year so that's kind of the one we have stuck with for this show.” Playing in the opening week of Brisbane Festival Helen and Leon have decided to stick with what works. “There is going to be a through line story line that focuses on the fact we are brother and sister... it's seeing how fed up we get with each other during these skits every night and how we get at each other during the play.”
Think of it as a show that breaks down the forth wall, in character, while throwing pies in each face... or something like that. “There are some routines that are influenced by Looney Tunes,” Leon says laughing, implying he might not know what exactly will happen. “We have a chase scene for instance, and another wordplay scene inspired by The Two Ronnies, but we aren't sure what we will do yet.”
“One thing is for certain... there will be pies in faces.”
