David Strassman: Duality

Another night out yesterday and another chance to see an Edinburgh preview show. After seeing Sarah Millican in Chatham last month this time it was David Strassman at the Leicester Square Theatre.

The fiancee and I have always liked a ventriloquist, she’s a big fan of Paul Zerdin, and so we were both looking forward to see the American do his show in the UK. Part of me was hoping that he’d do a proper ventriloquist show but I had a feeling that as this was an Edinburgh show that we were seeing early that it would be more of a play than a good old fashioned variety show type act.

The venue itself was tiny, located in the basement of the theatre, there was only room for about 50 chairs in the room and so it was an intimate show.

The show, called Duality, is a psychological comedy play set in a psychiatrist’s waiting room and has David Strassman playing the part of Jack with his puppet Zack (Chuck Wood on a normal day). It’s a one-man show (although the puppet actually makes it a two-man show) that centers around Jack and Zack as they prepare for the final of a talent show. It explores the clash of ego and alter ego, the conscious and the sub-conscious as they debate the existence of each other.

It’s darkly comic and extremely well written (it was originally written as a two-man play but then adapted for Strassman) and it really suited the venue. You wouldn’t get the same reaction to the masterful puppetry if it was played in a larger venue.

If you happen to be at the Edinburgh Fringe, you can catch the play at the Pleasance Courtyard from the 6th August