Hole! is a wonderfully silly musical comedy, and another complete Fringe delight. With the plot of a less offensive The Book of Mormon, it is a brilliantly concocted piece of chaos, with ass jokes aplenty.
The show is about a religious sect in Nebraska. One night, the Pastor has a vision: the apocalypse is coming soon and the only way to stop it is to… wear a butt plug? The crazier bit is that he is right. What ensues is a post-apocalyptic world in which the only survivors are those to whom Satan cannot reach through the anus.
Main characters Luke and Connor are simultaneously locked in a severely homoerotic friendship, and they are sent to explore and unplug all of the surviving people who are not part of the sect.
Hole! is totally wacky, and complete with all of the religious satire that you might expect from a show like this. Having a focused (if bonkers) plot allows for consistently themed jokes, which keeps a sharpness and a flow throughout. I thought the ending became a little convoluted and confusing, but this did not much discredit the hilarity of the whole show.
The musical approach is incredible — Jake Brasch and Nadja Leonhard-Hooper perform the w(hole) show behind a sound desk, and Brasch primarily plays the keyboard whilst Leonhard-Hooper swaps between household objects in order to create sound effects which are both surprisingly effective and humorous.
Songs were also impressive and catchy — the songs had the sonic quality of first-rate musicals, as well as tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a lot of jokes about holes. The writing is sharp, and had the audience laughing out loud almost the entire time.
Though the focus is on the sound — and it operates in many ways more as a radio play — the visuals are not to be overlooked. Highlights include Leonhard-Hooper biting into celery to denote a donkey (she very quickly spat it out again), and her use of a vibrator against a cup to signify a car’s engine.
Acting by Brasch and Leonhard-Hooper is also fantastic. The character range which they convey predominantly through vocal changes is incredibly impressive, and their comic timing is impeccable.
Hole! is the kind of conceptual insanity that works almost too well, and is a genius piece of musical theatre.
Image provided by American Sing-Song to The Student as press.