Four
years ago we met Chris Gibbs’s Victorian-era forebear,
one Barnaby Gibbs, a guileless and worshipful Dr. Watson to
a detective of Sherlockian brilliance, Antoine Feval. Barnaby
had first met Feval accidentally, late at night upstairs in
a London house when the latter was mysteriously shovelling
jewels into a sack and attempting to leave through the window.
Barnaby naturally leaped to the conclusion that the man must
be a detective. A discipleship is born.
Barnaby Gibbs is
back, the presiding voice and (wide) eyes through which we
experience The Further Adventures of Antoine Feval. The show
is a sly, stylish, and highly literate little gem, in which
the dexterous Gibbs (Chris, that is) does fancy footwork through
a maze of asides and delicate anachronisms about the fortunes
of a present-day Fringe comic named Chris Gibbs, without ever
shattering the elaborate conventions of Victorian storytelling.
There can’t
be a more skilled practitioner anywhere of the odd art of
sustaining the joke of the misinformed narrator who spectacularly
misapprehends everything in his own story. In confidential
tones that not only acknowledge the modern-day audience, but
embrace us, our witless protagonist cheerfully acknowledges
his own limitations, as he dreams of “a new life where
I’m actually successful at things.”
The writing is
very funny. And the way it comes to life, culminating in a
climactic action sequence through east end London, has a dizzy
intricacy that will make you laugh very hard, but afraid to
laugh too loud in case you miss something.
(5 stars)
Liz
Nicholls, Edmonton Journal
Fringe
favourite Chris Gibbs returns in this hilarious sequel to
again play his ancestor Barnaby Gibbs, the simpleton sidekick
to a suspicious detective named Antoine Feval.
Barnaby is a doltish
loser whose limited powers of deduction leave him blind to
the fact Feval is the notorious cat burglar terrorizing London.
The 70-minute mystery
spoof is all about this Victorian Clouseau, "a man of
ample limitations." Not so with Gibbs the performer,
whose appeal for his distinctive dry humour and deadpan delivery
is limitless. His story is hardly gripping, but the telling
is. He will matter-of-factly set a scene and mention an occasional
table and then blithely toss off the line, "I don't know
what it is the rest of the year."
His abilities as
an ace improviser were never more on display than during a
recent performance when he had to contend with a baby's cooing
and a spectator who fainted on the way to the washroom. The
former he gladly ad-libbed into his monologue, while the latter
he respectfully worked around to the appreciation of the sold-out
house.
(5 stars)
Kevin
Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press
Following up on
his Fringe play of three years ago, Antoine Feval, UK writer/performer
Chris Gibbs once again channels the memories of his great-great-grandfather,
Barnaby Gibbs. It seems Barnaby was the bumbling sidekick
of Antoine Feval, a Victorian cat burglar who masqueraded
as a detective. The story unfolds as the pair go on a thrilling
dash through the criminal underground of London.
Chris Gibbs is
a born Fringe performer. He inhabits the characters like a
master storyteller, and keeps the energy and laughs going
throughout. When the audience is stitches just for your soundcheck,
it's not a bad sign.
In the end, Gibbs
is a top-level performer, seamlessly switching from smart
wordplay, to snappy ad libs. This is one sequel that works.
(5 stars)
Wab
Kinew, CBC
In this sequel
to last year’s runaway one-man smash, veteran Fringe
raconteur Chris Gibbs plays the dim-witted sidekick to a Victorian
sleuth by the name of Antoine Feval, and spends the hour spinning
a lengthy anecdote that keeps the listener pinned on the edge
of their seat. Unencumbered by props, music or light effects,
he works his way through a captivating mystery plot, veering
off into an endless stream of digressions along the way. In
fact, Gibbs is such a skilled improviser that he barely has
time to do justice to the play’s ending, yet it somehow
doesn’t seem to matter, because his endearing mannerisms
alone are worth the price of admission.
( 4 stars)
Rob
Duffy, Eye Weekly, Toronto
After I nearly
hurt myself laughing at Chris Gibbs' Gibberish last Fringe,
I knew I wanted to see The Further Adventures as soon as it
appeared in the show schedule as a last-minute replacement
of the cancelled Affidavit. And to my utter delight, Gibbs
has done it again!
Helen Gardiner
Phelan Playhouse was barely a quarter full at this late night
performance, but the few who came to the show did not regret
it. Gibbs possesses this remarkable ability to just keep the
audience laughing the whole time of the performance: by the
time you are done laughing at one thing, the next funny thing
has already arrived, so you figure you figure you might as
well keep your original laugh going. Strongly recommended.
Tatiana
Kachira, BlogTO
In this sequel
to Antoine Feval, Chris Gibbs returns in the role of Barnaby
Gibbs, narrating some more of his memories of the time he
spent with the great detective Antoine Feval. For those of
you who haven't seen the original, Antoine Feval is not really
a detective at all. He is a burglar who, despite being caught
red handed by Barnaby, manages to convince him that he is
in reality a famous detective, thanks to Barnaby's incredible
naivety. In this instalment, Barnaby is still labouring under
this delusion, and is financing Feval's nonexistent detective
agency.
Like the original,
this is also a very funny play. Barnaby Gibbs and Antoine
Feval are wonderful comic creations, and Chris Gibbs gets
great comic mileage from Feval's consistent ability to pull
the wool over Barnaby's eyes. The plot, though secondary,
is absurd and fast moving, adding an element of structure
to Gibbs's free wheeling comedy. As well as having few equals
as a comic performer, Gibbs is also a talented storyteller,
easily drawing the audience into his narrative with his engaging
style.
Chris Gibbs is
as about as close as you can get to a sure thing at the Fringe.
You can always count on him to deliver a show that will keep
you in stitches, and this show is no exception.
Terry
Moor, UMFM, Winnipeg
Chris “Hilarious”
Gibbs is a mainstay at Fringe Festivals across Canada for
good reason. His new show, The Further Adventures of Antoine
Feval, allows him the opportunity to portray the type of character
he works best with: the ignorant idiot. The show is a sequel
to the more simply titled Antoine Feval, but this should not
stand in the way of anybody’s enjoyment of this brilliantly
told Sherlock Holmsian comedy. Told from the naive point of
view of the bumbling assistant to a man presumed to be a great
detective, the story follows a Victorian mystery as it unfolds,
with many breaks in the fourth wall, references both broad
and obscure, and enough charm to last well over the far too
short sixty minute running time (which Gibbs frantically and
hilariously tried to keep himself ahead of, eventually reacting
to bursts of laughter and applause with panicked cries of
“No! There’s no time!”). A last minute replacement
for the show Affadavit, this show isn’t listed in the
Toronto Fringe program but is a huge must-see.
Lacy
Tracy, Indyish, Toronto
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