Review from Richard Watts, Melbourne Fringe Chair

(from Richard Watts’ MAN ABOUT TOWN blog)

Hitlerhoff

An unholy fusion of the lives of Adolph Hitler and David Hasslehoff that’s performed by a cast of three with the assistance of some simply superb video projection (congrats to Anto Skene and Puck Murphy) this twisted piece of camp irony was outrageous and laugh-out-loud funny. It did seem to drag a little towards the end, so I think it might have benefitted from being maybe 10 minutes shorter (though this may also have been an opening night flaw, as I was told today the show ran overtime on its first night), but for the most part it’s a very silly, very funny, and very wrong show. Special mention should be made of of Simone Page Jones and Exra Bix, who between them play a punishing range of characters, and do so with comic aplomb.

Three and half ‘did he just say what I think he said?’ gasps out of five.

Confusing, but possibly very flattering review of Hitlerhoff:

(from Born Dancin – Around the Fringe in 80 Shows)

HITLERHOFF

There are few things in this universe more

POWERFUL STARE OF IAN MCKELLEN

And that’s my review. I would like to discuss this show with others. It’s very good that way.

Glowing Hitlerhoff review in the Age, Tuesday 30 Septemer, 2008

” … But [Halfway Across the River] isn’t as strange as Hitlerhoff, a whirlwind tour of fake tan and moustaches, in which audiences are invited to consider the controversial parallels between Adolf Hitler and David Hasselhoff. Together at last!

Tobias Manderson-Galvin is unstoppable in the title role, revelling in every Freudian reference or chance to goose-step through shallow waters. His supporting cast, Simone Page Jones and Ezra Bix, is no less formidable. This is an incredible undertaking, with director Erin Kelly successfully containing the many elements.

For all its postmodern irony this is, simply, a show whose speedos are bulging with gags.

Writer Tom Doig has produced a clever, funny and outrageous play. Have no doubt; this is where the cool kids will be this Fringe Festival.”

– Margaret Paul, reviewer (article on p16)

Nice quote from the radio interview on 3CR this morning …

“Hitlerhoff‘s opening night is sold out. You want to know why? Because Tom Doig is a genius.”

– Alex Grantham, 3CR BREAKFAST

Bad News: HITLERHOFF’s opening night is SOLD OUT! Good News for us: HITLERHOFF’s second night is ALSO SOLD OUT!

Well, we must be doing something right, because opening night (this Friday 26 Sep) is all booked out. Yah!

There were still tickets left for Saturday 27 Sep … but we sold that out a few hours before curtain call as well.

If you fancy the prospect of winning yourself a couple of tickets to the show, tune in to

JOY FM (94.9) on Wednesday 24 September, 8.35am, or

3CR (855am) on Thursday 25 September, 8.10am,

for the chance to score some freebies! I will be having a chat about all things Hitlerhoff, and giving away tickets to quick-fingered and sharp-eared listeners.

Otherwise, you can wait until next Wednesday (1 October), 12.40. I’ll be doing an interview on RRR FM (102.7) about the National Young Writers’ Festival celebratory anthology Herding Kites – but there will be an obligatory nod to Hitlerhoff in there too!

More reviews of Hitlerhoff …

“Tom Doig has shown us that there can be poetry after Baywatch”
– Marcel Dorney, playwright, author of New Royal and Thieves Like Us

“Hitlerhoff manages to splice two seemingly incommensurate genres into one brilliant meta-text: history as we know it is annihilated by the blitzkrieg trash-abyss that was Baywatch. Theatre-goers of Melbourne watch out – there is a new axis of evil, and it’s name is Hitlerhoff!”
– David Mence, playwright,, co-founder of White Whale Theatre, author of Macbeth Rearisen