Avanti received showers of applause for their quirky and heart-warming show!
Hi viz tots with folded legs and clean, bright faces sat expectantly behind a rope circle at the Cathedral Outer Close on Friday morning, waiting for Mr Lucky’s Party to begin. As one of the UK’s longest established outdoor performance companies with nearly thirty years of outdoor arts under their belt, Avanti were a great place to start the Winchester hat Fair weekend.
Mr Lucky appeared from the audience dressed in a beige over coat holding an old suitcase and a self-raining umbrella which unapologetically soaked all he passed over, including three very surprised teenage girls in the front row who laughed at each other’s running make-up and wet clothes, we soon realised the rope circle was a clever façade.
The restaurant come café setting featuring a desk with a telephone, a menu and old jazz music playing in the background complete with an upright, cloth waving waiter appeared Faulty Towers esc; visual gags of toy dog poo being tucked under rugs only added to this sense of harmless joy. The water sports continued as Mr Lucky (a beautifully ironic name) and his wife mouthed the words to The Ink Spots’ song Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall; “too much is falling in mine” he protested as saucers overflowed and pipes produced bubbles rather than smoke.
But the unlucky couple accepted their sodden situation revealing a glittering gown and immaculate suit beneath their coats and embracing to kiss to the children’s giggling delight and disgust. As a joke for the adults a patio umbrella rose into the sky suggestively at this moment, a brilliantly unexpected visual gag.
Avanti performed the simple story of an unlucky man and his rekindling romance with his wife beautifully, like a silent movie the company’s use of gesture and expression rather than speech made the performance universally enjoyable with moments of pure, innocent joy and laughter for both children and adults.