The Artist Thomas Monckton Wonderfully Funny

“Thomas Monckton has been performing his circus-informed, clown-honed show The Artist since 2017, and it shows. This physical theatre performance, now in its final outing at Sydney Festival following a successful season at Adelaide Festival, has such ease that you could almost be fooled into thinking what Monckton is doing on stage is easy,” Cassie Tongue writes in a review of the New Zealander’s show for The Sydney Morning Herald.

“There he is, a painter without inspiration, trying to stop a ceiling leak dripping into his cup of tea. There he is, stapling his sock to a canvas. Climbing a closed ladder to reach a high shelf, not faltering when it tips over,” Tongue writes.

“These sly commentaries on the process of making work and its eventual reception by others, props up the crowd-pleasing routines and gives them a much-welcome heft. Rigorous theatrical construction really does make a comedy funnier, and this piece, with its thoughtful motivations, is generously, wonderfully funny.”

Original article by Cassie Tongue, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2023.

Photo by Antti Saukko.