Frank Woodley - Possessed

Slapstick is dead. Long live slapstick.

Inspired by the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, multi-talented Australian comic Frank Woodley brings his fantastic solo-debut Possessed to the Edinburgh Fringe, breathing new life into a genre not really seen since the glory days of Reeves and Mortimer.

Woodley’s one man show boasts a series of different characters in a wonderfully varied production that features acrobatics, audience-baiting and Otis Lee Crenshaw-style musical interludes.

The main plot follows the miniature-ship-building Lewey Winkleman, a stay-at-home loner who becomes possessed by the ghost of an Irish woman named Phoebe O’Leary. As the plot develops, Lewey starts to fall in love with Phoebe as together they try to understand why it is he has come to be possessed. Events are moved along by a grizzled Italian seadog, who is often more stand-up comedian than narrator, whose tales of tragedy fill in the details of Phoebe’s life and death.

Although it isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny, it is consistently entertaining throughout. The show is a wonderfully warm production, full of charm and a real joie de vivre. Woodley’s acrobatics and slapstick persona are a joy to behold as he interacts with an incredibly dynamic set, the choreography and lighting effects creating a wonderful fantasy world.

The only real criticism is that Possessed takes its time to get going, but as events draw to a close, Woodley has the entire Assembly crowd eating from his hand.