After advertising last year’s version of the show as a work in progress Steve Sheehan returns with this, presumably complete version of A Little Horse Play. A play featuring a little horse, the music of Wagner, Lizst and Satie and an Opera Singer.
The surreal premise of a restaurant ‘background comedian’ telling jokes to the music of classical composers has potential and drew the biggest laughs early on in the play as did the ridiculous transcription of Wagner’s Liebestod. Thereafter, the play ventures deeper into surrealism with Sheehan performing classical pieces with a horse mask on and an actual small horse walking around the stage whilst an Opera Singer mimes various mis-haps with animal masks on. Yes, this won’t appeal to your average stand-up comedy fan.
As an exercise in absurdity this is certainly bizarre. As a piece of abstract clowning there was little in the way of laughs from the packed out audience. Sheehan is obviously a funny man, his bumbling mumbling character could have drawn bigger laughs but there was more focus on the music and mimicry.
This may find an appreciative audience but with some fine tuning I think it could have a much wider appeal. But then again that’s probably not what Steve, or the horse want.
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