Whoever decided to have Alex Marshall Parsons' Gary and Pel kick off Day 2 of Wales Dance Platform deserves a round of pirouettes. The duo is a tour de force of comedy, using both slapstick and mime, and really warmed the crowds up during their opening performance in Chapter's foyer.

Gary and Pel are two comedy characters played by Alex himself, along with Kim Noble. Gary looks like a reject from The Little Shop of Horrors, while Pel is a vision in bright yellow fright wig straight out of the B-52s. They "drive" into view in their shocking pink cardboard car and proceed to leap about the space with the energy and vigour of a pair of antelopes. Their faces are what elevates this physical piece from mere entertaining to downright brilliant, Alex in particular being blessed with a range of expressions that say every word he does not speak. I love the persona Kim has built up too, like a cross between Elvira, RuPaul and Cindy Lauper.

The crazy antics of these two grotesques - whose obsession with frying pans and 1950s infomercials forms a core of this routine - deserves to be developed and expanded. I can see these guys storming the Royal Variety Show or - God forbid - Britain's Got Talent, but I'd never want their anarchic roots to be ironed away (would Simon Cowell stick with a dance piece which essentially depicts 1950s domestic bliss through the lens of David Lynch?). Gary and Pel were among the highlights of the entire weekend for me.

Steve Stafford Reviews

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