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Buddhism: Is it just for Losers?
Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2013
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The Nightingale (venue website)
Theatre
30-31 May, 1 Jun, 9:00pm-9:40pm

 World Premiere.
 Warning: Contains strong language.

For this, the last of our advance picks for the 2013 Brighton Fringe, there are two things we need to make clear. Firstly, we don’t think that Buddhism is for losers. And secondly, it’s the wildest of all wildcard choices; all we really know about it is what we’ve read in the programme blurb. But when we looked more closely, and saw who was behind this provocatively-titled show… well, it was simply too tempting to resist.

We last caught Inconvenient Spoof back in 2011, once again at the Nightingale, with their previous outing Naïve Dance Masterclass.  Ostensibly a seminar on a new and emerging art form, the Masterclass was in fact an eloquent, affectionate parody; an offbeat pastiche on the excesses of performance art, which hid an earnestly tragic-comic plot beneath a veneer of pointed humour.  “Lecturer” Matt Rudkin embodied the character of a self-centred expert, filling his monologue with nonsensical juxtapositions and random conceits.  And as time went on, the show developed a joyously conspiratorial air – a delight for anyone who’s ever sat through an inscrutable artistic “happening”, wondering if the performers were laughing inside.

Fast-forward to 2013, and we’re promised an all-new lecture on the meaning of the universe… from a man on his way to a mid-life crisis.  There’ll be puppetry and a bit of poetry, as our host Larry attempts to convince us that he really is as happy as he claims we could all be.  We admit, we don’t know quite what to expect, but on the strength of the Masterclass we’re hoping for something both preposterous and wonderful.  It’s certainly a controversial title, but as a great philosopher once told us: every loser wins.

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