Benito Di Fonzo /
Suburban Bukowskis
Lenny Bruce: 13 Daze Un-Dug In Sydney, 1962.
"There's often a little bit of a review that, in one's haste to publish, is omitted. In the case of Lenny Bruce, it's this. Professionally, I come from an advertising background. I'm steeped in brand character; attributes; essence. Benito Di Fonzo, in this play and The Chronic Ills Of Robert Zimmerman, has shown clear signs of a burgeoning 'brand' personality; a style; a voice all his own. It can be summed up, it seems to me, in the acronym REM: rhythm; energy; momentum. The people Di Fonzo has written about were and are full-on; they've travelled, intellectually and philosophically, at full tilt. They've been intrepid adventurers in the realms of mind, heart and soul. The reason Di Fonzo can write so evocatively about them is because he's like them."
Crikey/Australian Stage reviewer Lloyd Bradford Syke.
2NSB-FM interview -
From the writer/director team behind critically acclaimed cult hit The Chronic Ills of Robert Zimmerman, AKA Bob Dylan (A Lie) comes a vaudevillian mash-up of stand-up, documentary and jazz in an absurdly funny, surreal investigation of the attempted 1962 Sydney tour of the American ‘sick’ comedian Lenny Bruce.
Direct from a season at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club in London, Bruce arrived in Australia to find that Sydney was far from Soho. Banned from performing after one sensational show, crucified by the media and harassed by Vice Squad detectives, the pioneering U.S. hipster comedian spent 13 days trapped in Kings Cross, searching for jazz, drugs, companionship and a stage.
Writer Benito Di Fonzo
(Loosely distorted from the book 'Lenny Bruce: 13 Days in Sydney' by Damien Kringas)
Director Lucinda Gleeson
Starring Sam Haft, Lenore Munro, Damien Strouthos & Dorje Swallow
Reviews:
- ABC RADIO NATIONAL (Books & Arts Daily) spot