Type – Absurdist, Steampunk-style, Comedy
If you liked – Terry Gilliam animations, The Goons, Monty Python, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
Twenty Million Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A raw but hilarious and strangely moving two-dimensional Odyssean tale of a man finding his true self at the bottom of the sea
The three guys in Pummel Squad who bring this montage to life for us are obviously well versed in late twentieth-century absurdism. I’m sure they have spent many hours – if not with old video tapes – scouring Youtube for the comedians who they obviously revere and love (as do I). They have the artistic flair of Terry Gilliam, the wordplay of Peter Cook or Douglas Adams, the pratfalls of Monty Python, and the fashion stylings of H G Wells.
If you are already thinking WTF, I recommend swallow, take a deep breath and have a look. Even if you are not equally well versed in the realms of those comedians, the sweet charm and laugh out loud moments of this performance will give you an hour’s respite from the crappy politics and AI slop with which we are currently inflicted. And they do it all live on stage!
The beauty of the Sydney Fringe Festival and how Pummel Squad tackles it
Twenty Million Thousand Leagues is raw – I mean raw – in its production and staging, but really that’s part of the fun. It’s Fringe after all! They tell the story of a kind of Forrest Gump simple man (of course with the ridiculous name of Rasthomas Bulge) who needs to stretch his perception and sense of adventure to find his true self. But this is no serious show – they tap into all the tropes and cliches of one hundred years of film and television to tell the story.
I wonder how many in the audience or reading this will even know what an overhead projector is? For someone like me it is how teachers used ‘multimedia’ as it was called to reach the ‘kids’. In the hands of Pummel Squad the simple OHP screen and light projection comes alive with comedy and pathos. We who are the generations brought up on film, TV and now laptops and smartphones are so versed in the language of the screen that even this tiny screen on stage with its crazy silhouettes can speak to us as well as Star Wars or Casablanca.
Cooper Donald McDonald and Harry McGee who do the main OHP/stage performances have an extra edge in their ability to cut through with sly one liners and pauses as they glance to the audience. Their awkward nerdy personae are half rehearsed and half chance, and all are appealing and charming. Yanto Shortis on the synth keyboard and sound-effects table creates a wonderful mix of 1970s TV space series soundscape, with the added fun of 1940s radio sounds effects of stamping feet and shooting through the air.
Is Twenty Million Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Worth Seeing at the Sydney Fringe Festival?
The show is well worth seeing – but you better get your skates on as there are only four more shows in Sydney – if you like the kind of absurdist bittersweet plotting reminiscent of Adam Elliott’s thoroughly enjoyable animation Harvey Krumpet, and with some great grown up laughs thrown in for the kids within us.
Tickets and Practical Info for Twenty Million Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in Sydney 🎟️
Created by – Pummel Squad
Sydney Fringe Festival
VENUE: New Theatre, Newtown
DATES: Thur 11 to Saturday 13 September 2025
Tickets: https://sydneyfringe.com/events/twenty-million-thousand-leagues-under-the-sea
- Created by – Pummel Squad
- Performer/Creator – Cooper Donald McDonald
- Performer/Creator – Harry McGee
- Performer/Sound Design – Yanto Shortis
- Dramaturgy – Ludomyr Kemp-Mykyta
- Producer – Mark Pritchard
One Response