Thom Monckton’s artist is chaotic and silly – or so he would have you believe. Though he has a few near misses with a staple gun, and becomes easily distracted by everything from a bowl of fruit to an annoying leak, everything is perfectly planned to deliver hoots of laughter and squeals of delight from the audience. At points it starts to feel a bit circuitous: will he ever paint that picture? But when he finally does, it becomes a clever and entertaining finale. My 7 year old co-reviewer came out beaming and said: “he must have practiced that a lot”. She’s right – Monckton is an assured, confident performer and it feels like he’s having a lot of fun playing the part, too.

Assembly Roxy, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Marni Appleton]