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Interiors With Johnny VegasInteriors, MIF

By Kevin Bourke in Manchester Evening News Posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007

ONE of the most eagerly-anticipated world premieres of the Manchester International Festival has been this unique – and as it turns out rather extraordinary and poignant – show from Johnny Vegas and writer Stewart Lee, of Jerry Springer – The Opera fame.

So secret has it been that even its location is not divulged until you’re actually there. How it works is that twenty people at a time board a specially-chartered bus outside the Festival Pavilion twice a day.

They are given an estate agent’s description of a “two bedroom house, Old Trafford/Chorlton border” and are then taken to an ordinary-looking house, where they’re met by Jeffrey Parkin, also known as Johnny Vegas or, in another version of real life, Michael Pennington.

They are then shown around the property by its owner, who’s anxious to sell up so he can move to Montenegro but is equally anxious to point out the unique qualities of the house he’s been busy renovating.

So keen is he on his renovations, in fact, that he insists it’s “not renovation but romance”.

It would be unfair of me to reveal precisely what happens subsequently but a story gradually emerges in which IKEA, allen-keys and world cinema loom as large as love, inadequacy and self-delusion, with a final twist that’s genuinely poignant and thought-provoking.

Vegas/Pennington gives a remarkable, quick-witted performance, especially as many of the audience are obviously expecting something closer to his stand-up persona and are, perhaps, a little too eager to laugh.

Being so close to him throughout the performance can, no doubt, be a little disconcerting and, as the show ends, it’s difficult to know how exactly to react, beyond acknowledging that we’ve all just been part of something that’s genuinely special.

Written by Kevin Bourke in Manchester Evening News on 6th July 2007. Filed Under: Interiors, Johnny Vegas, Manchester International Festival
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