Underground Monk Show review, hysterical visions enrobed in mystery

Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh Four clowns stir up a strange stew of ideas about faith in this playful and highly physical comedy

‘A nyone ever been born before?” That’s a rare bid for relatable crowd work in this buzzy, bizarre hour by a bunch of cowled Los Angeles clowns-cum-monks , nominated for Edinburgh’s best comedy newcomer award . We witness the birth of one, umbilical cord held by the others, with a “goo goo ga ga, G’day!” greeting gurgled by D Marcucci as the mercurial newborn.

But everyone on stage seems to be discovering their body for the first time. John Norris is half-fascinated, half-frightened, on removing his robe’s hood, to realise he has a bushy moustache. Claire Woolner and Max Baumgarten are not just finding their voices but simply getting used to having a tongue in their mouths.

In a show co-directed by Norris and Corey Podell, this pack of monks nervously shuffles among us clutching each other as well as a bowl of water. A lanyard is torn from an audience member and thrown in with a satanic sizzle. They appear bound by a secret code that they may not quite remember. All fingers and thumbs with the bowl, their ritual devolves into a game of rock, paper, scissors with some tricksy lighting. When they dunk themselves, the bowl becomes a mystical portal for each monk’s interlinking vision.

Rather than plunge in, I spent the first few minutes sceptical, wary of self-indulgence as the quartet endlessly fretted. But with each passing chime that rings out, the show becomes a richly weird stew of ideas, about connection, alienation, the limits of language, expressed through masterly movement.

The dynamic between each individual and the rest of the ensemble is carefully choreographed even outside routines such as a ball in a nonsense kingdom, a slow duet with an audience member soundtracked to Adele or the Bob Fosse-esque routine that meets Marcucci’s birth.

The foursome are testing faith too, not just in an irresistible repeated gag where they don’t fully understand how to do a trust fall. It’s one of those shows that retains the giddy spirit of an easy-to-imagine devising process. Twisted and twisty until a flurry of final reveals, this monkish mischief also leaves lots to contemplate.

At Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh , until 30 August. Then at Soho theatre, London , 11-23 January