Come for the sperm jokes, stay for the existentialism
You wouldn’t think that the show that has made me think about how art should “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” (Finley Dunne) the most at fringe so far, was a musical comedy about a man donating sperm, but here we are. Several teary eyes and a lot of chuckles later.
Darby James displays in 60 minutes everything you can really want and need from a musical comedy, as well as lovingly injecting existentialist fears (and possible answers) into you via excellent sperm based jokes, storytelling and songs.
He consistently catches you off guard, disarming you with raunchy puns, catchy songs before hitting you with a powerful and unsolvable question like what gives him the right, to assist in the birth of a child with no certain future in a world bumbling towards ecological catastrophe. How do we reconcile our desire for legacy, the ecological and ethical impact of a child, and the knowledge that said child’s joy is uncertain? In it’s funny moments, he makes you cry, in tense and sad moments he makes you laugh. This is what the best, most powerful, and important pieces of comedy and theatre do -and Darby is a natural at it here.
He has an undeniable quality when blurring the lines between songs and conversations, with at times the same smoothness and control of tension of his fellow countryman Tim Minchin. The racing monologues with the musical backing play with the tension so smoothly, allowing him to pull your heart strings at just the right moments, almost annoying you with easily you fall into these emotional traps he lays out in each song.
Not all the songs are as catchy, or interesting as each other but they each achieve a purpose, with more consistency, this show could reach the next level. There’s almost nothing wrong in the show artistically, just further work really perfecting the songs, and tightening some narrative passages. One of the last songs has a beautifully succinct hook about inherit violence of living, which contrasts so well with an upbeat musical backing, working as a musical metaphor for the cognitive dissonance we all deal with in a world filled with so much joy and misery alongside each other.
Shows of this quality, bravery and commitment to their artistic goals, are what makes the fringe a privilege to see.