Two Cents: A Czar is Born (Sydney Fringe)
The smorgasbord of Fringe is a wonder. To approach the festival is to come upon a sea of great, heaving tables full of the most wild and eclectic creations, wobbling their brave and questionably sturdy legs into the dusk of Sydney’s early spring, as far as the eye can see. It’s impossible to sample everything – and indeed some platters on this gargantuan feast are half-baked, hard-boiled, or barely digestible. Sometimes the best approach is to grab the first thing you see and hope for a treat.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that it was more a whim than deep research which led me to A Czar is Born, a literary hoax comedy and spiritedly absurd cabaret by Laurence Rosier Staines, reprised 15 years after it was first staged now at the Eternity Playhouse (aka Fringe’s ‘Off Broadway Hub’). With musical numbers, a live band on stage right, and a great deal of general silliness in wordplay and hammy acting, it’s a grand old high-spirited romp through the publishing worlds egos, featuring feuds, frauds, rivalries and an unlikely romance.
The scheme that sets it off involves the Francois Duchamp, the would-be A-lister of Swanson publishing house. Losing shareholders (and shoes) to his rival across the street, Swanson convinces the cantankerous recluse to have a proxy front the publicity circus for his new book. Dispensing with a rigorous selection process, they somehow end up with an illiterate ragamuffin pickpocket to be the public face of their man of letters.
Great comic gusto is needed for this kind of show, and the majority of the cast have it, in song, dance, and winks to old-timey genre tropes. There are a few standouts: Lucinda Jurd as our upstart little urchin impersonator, a sly imbecile drowning in an enormous suit; Dominique Purdue as the apoplectic rival publisher; Rupert Bevan as the hard-luck publishing assistant. The greatest discovery though is Darcy Brown, who plays the real Duchamp. With a face that seems carved from a marble bust commissioned by a vain aristocrat, his magnetically louche stage presence is as extraordinary as his cheekbones, even while strutting about in silk pyjamas and a courtroom fez. He inhabits the lazy, sharp-tongued contempt of his billionaire genius splendidly.
It's a Fringe show, so there’s some inevitable shabbiness (missed cues, moustaches fluttering away from upper lips), but this is mostly endearing. An entertaining hour that ends with a satisfying twist, Czar is a good bet on fun with your festival penny.
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A Czar is Born
By Laurence Rosier Staines
Until 13 September at Eternity Playhouse
Sydney Fringe 2025
