Brooke Matherly
Death Never Blinks is a delightful, silly, and funny delve into a radio drama. Extreme low light mostly conceals the five performers: four stationed behind their microphones and one behind a desk full of literal bells and whistles doing live foley artistry. Each performer fully invests in the melodramatic fun of this parody of classic film noir style detective stories. Aside from Steven Youngblood performing as our leading detective Dick Mason, each of the three other speakers played multiple roles affecting a range of voices and accents as required.
While the performers are acting and doing the piece live, this is a staged radio drama as opposed to a play. The performers do act through the piece in any way that would help their delivery of the lines, but most of the fun in watching the performance is seeing the performers create each character voice. The difference might be a pinched nose or a strained neck, but no matter how slight the change, it’s fun as an audience member to see the performers creatively differentiate each character. The foley artist Oliver Devlin is a particular treat to watch. Particularly with the show being as silly as it is, getting to see someone slap a head of cabbage on stage does nothing but add to the fun.
The story itself is nothing more than lite comedy. This show is full of puns and a slew of jokes around the name Dick. Much of the humour comes from the melodramatic delivery of the lines. The story has all the classic detective drama elements of intrigue, murder, and red herrings all of which are thoroughly mocked. The combination of concept and talented performers is the strength of this piece. The story is intentionally broad and basic to highlight the elements of comedic parody.
If you’re searching for a fun, easy evening then Death Never Blinks is an excellent option. This show provides plenty of laughs and a chance to see a very unique concept which is thoroughly entertaining to observe. Death Never Blinks will be at BATS Theatre until March 2nd.
The story itself is nothing more than lite comedy. This show is full of puns and a slew of jokes around the name Dick. Much of the humour comes from the melodramatic delivery of the lines. The story has all the classic detective drama elements of intrigue, murder, and red herrings all of which are thoroughly mocked. The combination of concept and talented performers is the strength of this piece. The story is intentionally broad and basic to highlight the elements of comedic parody.
If you’re searching for a fun, easy evening then Death Never Blinks is an excellent option. This show provides plenty of laughs and a chance to see a very unique concept which is thoroughly entertaining to observe. Death Never Blinks will be at BATS Theatre until March 2nd.
