After more than two decades away from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Katrina Mathers has returned with her brand new show Anything But The Dyson and Other Excellent Monologues. On long-service leave from her current day job, she tells the audience she wanted to spend it putting on a Comedy Festival show.
Currently running at the Black Box theatre at Transcendence in Collingwood, the show leans into the topics of midlife, memory, menopause and the strange emotional weight of everyday objects including, yes, a Dyson vacuum cleaner and the frustrations that go with operating this beast.
Mathers moves between a raft of personal stories and anecdotes that the women-of-a-certain-age in the audience (myself included) can relate to. Hot flashes. Sweats. Health scares. Unbridled rage. Mathers talks us through her personal experiences in a loose way – like she’s popped in to have a few wines and a laugh after a particularly outrageously shitty week.
Her tales are told with the rhythm of someone who’s thinking out loud a bit, getting sidetracked, doubling back and then landing a sharp punchline. There’s some chaos to this show, but it is expertly controlled by Mathers.
The Dyson material is the hook, but this show isn’t actually about appliances. The Dyson is a running metaphor for frustration with the things in life that are meant to help us but only serve to hinder us, Much like our ageing bodies. The other “excellent monologues” come courtesy of several writers Mathers has collaborated with from both Australia and overseas and she performs these on their behalf, interspersed throughout her own material
The 6pm timeslot adds to the vibe. It’s early, a little lo-fi, and oddly perfect for the crowd it’s speaking to – we finish up at 7pm on the dot and can be home in time to have dinner get to bed at a sensible time.
Anything But The Dyson and Other Excellent Monologues runs until Sunday 19 April at 5-6/48 Easey Street, Collingwood. Tickets here.
