Fringe review: One Must Imagine the Boiling Frog Happy
Set entirely in a hot tub, Ben Volchok’s new oddball theatre piece finds him lounging his way through an existential crisis. ★★★
Ben Volchok’s show The Ceremony was a sleeper hit of past Adelaide Fringes, building a word-of-mouth audience enthralled by his often completely silent immersive approach. Now he’s back with a new scripted play, and those worried about an absence of weird can rest assured, because it’s set in a hot tub in a corner room at Arthur Arthouse. Volchok’s trademark gentle energy is evident in his welcome, and we’re all encouraged to cool down with an icy pole as Adelaide continues to swelter through a long, hot summer.
Here’s a thing about fringes: they do tend to skew towards the young. You can’t shake a (freshly painted) stick without falling over dozens of shows about dating, crushing, high school feuding and coming of ageing. So, it’s satisfying to find Volchok exploring his third-life crisis, contemplating parenthood and fretting about not achieving his potential. Enclosed in his hot tub, you can imagine him as a swan; serene on the surface, pedalling for dear life underneath, fighting off the dread prospect of an arts admin job. There’s some beautiful writing too: the self-styled oracle of Currie Street has a gift for imbuing poetry into the tiniest of phrases and the deepest of questions.
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This first outing for the play is best viewed as a work in progress. As it continues to develop and grow with its audience there’s no doubt Volchok will continue to tighten the script, find more shifts in his energy and play more. When a character is confined within a setting, we want to see them push boundaries and move towards some sort of emotional climax if we are to truly root for them. Yet there’s a lot to like in Volchok’s smart and intriguing writing. It seems any worries about potential are unfounded because there’s loads of it here. Just like the frog, this one’s got legs.
One Must Imagine the Boiling Frog Happy is playing at Arthur Arthouse from February 20 – March 8
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