Theatre

Jonah Non Grata

Alan Hindle | Sunday 7 August, 2011 14:19

Jonah Non Grata is a series of meaningful non sequiturs giving the impression of leading somewhere momentous before wandering off with a fish on its shoulder. Shunt writer/performer Simon Kane has the curious power to convince an audience to follow him into the wilderness and leave them all blindfolded there, each holding a playing card and waiting for the rest of a magic trick. Several hundred years ago he might have led a popular Crusade into the ocean and exhorted the pilgrims to make love to dolphins. At one point int the show Kane gave the audience a Choose Your Own Adventure book and vanished for ten minutes. We had a fine time without him (Remember, always go north, and never enter any castles or blacksmith’s barns) and then he returned to confuse us some more. After a while I became exhausted with the whole premise that I had to carry his nonsense in my magical Bag of Suspended Belief, and occasionally the show dips heavily into self-indulgence. But Kane, like all semi-mystical monks and sloppy wizards, is able to effortlessly resurrect interest with the simplest gesture. At one point towards the end he disappeared again, Andy Kaufman-style, out the fire exit doors into the street, and the miraculous timing of incidental passersby spun comedy gold from nothing but fresh air and a hennaed beard. Potential drivel transmuted into a +3 Amulet of Confounding worth 3000 gold pieces.

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