EDWARD GANT’S AMAZING FEATS OF LONELINESS

Roll up, roll up! Witness the whimsy! Marvel at the meta-theatre!

Welcome to Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness, a spectacle in every sense of the word.

Director Sarah Goodes brings us the circus tent world of Victorian impresario Edward Gant (the caped and moustachioed Paul Bishop).

With the help of his marvellously outfitted troupe of performers – costumes courtesy of Romance Was Born’s Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett – Gant spins tale after tale of human loneliness. And though writer Anthony Neilson is said to take his writing cues from his tussles with the black dog, these vignettes come in full colour.

We meet Sanzonetta, the girl whose pockmarked face conceals an unusual and lucrative gift. We also follow the heartbroken Edgar as he travels across the globe to find release from the ache of love sickness. But mutiny hangs in the air, and Gant’s show may not go on.

This is inventive, flamboyant, extravagant theatre – but there are definitely points when Amazing Feats buckles under the weight of its own daring. It’s like that old line about whoever invokes Nazi Germany first loses the argument: the point at which you strap a backyard abortion to a character’s chin is probably the point at which your production is trying too hard.

For theatregoers tired of the same-same anguished fare so often on offer on Sydney stages, though, Edward Gant promises a welcome breather.

Until Jul 23, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $30-77, 9250 1777, sydneytheatre.com.au