The diminutive BAFTA-nominated ventriloquist Nina Conti brings her latest show In Your Face to the Lowry Quays Theatre: it’s sometimes bizzare but always funny.
She informs us that each show is “one of a kind as it all depends on the audience”…and off we go.
First off Nina brings out her Monkey puppet (wearing a Christmas hat) who gets to know several members of the front row.
One, a first-year medical student called Olly, takes the first hit by coming up on stage and strapping on an air-pump controlled mask, giving rise to a joke about his “favourite organ”.
Monkey makes a return and puts Nina in a hypnotic trance and so ends the first part of the show.
As the curtain rises for the second act Monkey is centre stage, moving his mouth with no words coming out as Nina is still in a trance, but things move on when Monkey awakens Nina with a slap across the face.
Next up Nina gets into a sack and only Monkey is left visible.
Monkey then engages into discussion with members of the audience, the banter is surreal to say the least.
A lawyer named Kevin, sitting up in the third tier, is then invited down on stage.
The articulated masks make a return and again we have Nina providing both questions and answers while Kevin moves his arms. Somehow this translates to a sketch about how Kevin killed his first three wives.
Nina’s final performance involves her donning a cream-coloured body stocking with a face, bare bust and pubic hair on the back; she then turns so that this is visible to the audience and we have some rather risky gesticulation and more banter.
A lot of the above needs to be seen to be appreciated and is also only suitable for an adult audience.
However the audience had a really good night and came away better for the experience.
