EdFringe Review: Bing!

I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed Jason Woods’ BING!

What audacity to tell a good story well without a single prop and no scrap of costuming! What cheek to tell a fairytale hero’s journey to an audience of 12+!

Who does he think his audience is? Little kids?!

Well, for my money, there’s not nearly enough childish wonder in typical ‘big kids+’ theatre, and it diminishes as the target audience accumulates grey hairs.

I’m all in for a creator and performer with Woods’ gift for voices and playful physicality to take me on an adventure. He even goes one better, accompanying the story with a lavish, self-composed soundtrack. It’s amazing how it tracks the story in real-time – bravo to the tech desk!

Circling back to that fairytale plot, it’s not just a bog standard oddly smart orphan discovers he’s the chosen one and makes good. Ok, so ‘BING!’ might not fool around with the recipe too much, but the characters are sensational.

Jasper, our hero, is kind-hearted and likeable for sure, but he’s not particularly cut out for swashbuckling; his brother Casper is a pompous, malapropism-plagued buffoon. They make a classic comedy double-act.

Fun as they are, it’s the no-nonsense sassy with the catchphrase ‘Bing!’ that steals every scene. Throw her in the mix and you never quite know what’s coming next, or who she’ll open the library on via her two odd-coloured eyes. That’s what happens when you pluck a witch out of 20th-century New York (judging from the accent & attitude) and drop her into a quasi-medieval fantasy.

“What audacity to tell a good story well without a single prop and no scrap of costuming! What cheek to tell a fairytale hero’s journey to an audience of 12+!“

There’s a dragon too, because of course there is, and he’s just a treat. The reverb applied is split-second perfect, and only adds to his larger-than-life presence. That said, my only note on ‘BING!’ pertains to how the dragon makes his entrances. Rather than have a ‘Dragon-ex-machina’ who can just appear where and when he will, it would be more satisfactory, magical and potentially amusing if the story had worked with his huge, physical presence. It’s a delight when he appears, nevertheless.

As for the baddies, well, they’re a cracking bunch, complete with flatulent henchmen and led by the terrifying pale queen. Woods doesn’t mess about with her; she’s just a stone-cold psycho who wants power at any cost.

You might think with such a fulsome cast, things might get confusing: not a bit. Woods’s dialogue is cleverly written to avoid awkward voice switches or confusing action, without dumbing the text down. His ability to shift between characters is remarkable, as is his ability to keep the action straight in his mind. There’s no hesitation, no hamming it up to cover for tricky to remember sections – this storyteller delivers with polish.

Woods also makes sure that ‘BING!’ trips along at a merry, escalating pace as the peril mounts and our heroes confront possible, or perhaps certain defeat. The comedy never fails, but it does make way for moments of tragedy and horror so that the story never falls into farce. It’s fanciful, sure, but it’s not silly at heart – well, maybe it is, but just a little. Woods makes sure that no victory comes without a cost, and ‘BING!’ is all the deeper for it.

So there are: a good story, well told by a superbly talented creator & performer. In ‘BING!’ Jason Woods has created nothing less than a big-hearted cinematic comedy adventure with a cast of one – who contains multitudes – using a set and special effects (lovely soundtrack aside), entirely conjured by the imagination. Bravo!