PRESS COVERAGE & REVIEWS
A MUST SEE SHOW!
Natasha Higdon, Fringe Review, 10.05.2023
As a solo performer, Wetzel sets up the imagined setting beautifully through carefully timed gestures, leading through his body and variation of weight placement to ‘paint’ his world around him. Without any props I was transported into a world of a man who cares for the birds, whilst ‘tending’ to his customers with rigour, pride and a sense of contentment in his own world. This dynamic of immersive, co-development is evident to see as Delong directs this story with beautiful alignment between Charue and Wetzel. Their energy is infectious as we see Charue using twelve instruments, his extensive vocal palette and random objects (my personal favourite was the vacuum pump) to compliment Wetzel’s beautiful rhythms of movement. Wetzel never misses a beat, with delicate placement of his body throughout, concomitantly performing whilst in full mask – Not a fleeting task!
SPELLBOUND FOR ONE HOUR
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Victoria Nangle, Entertainment now, 10.05.2023
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Being spellbound is an absolute rarity for an entire hour. The magic that silent masked performer Ralf Wetzel with foley artist multi-instrumentalist Max Charue creates in The Heist absolutely spellbound, captivated and enchanted for every second of the show.
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There’s a couple of very deft and skilled hands at the tiller of The Heist, telling big truths with this small tale of few words, sitting comfortably within the respected trench set by the likes of Keaton and Chaplin.
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Non-verbal entertainment satirises at great volume, we are reminded. The Heist is that rare bird of a show that flies both with its storytelling and its storytellers.
THE SADDEST MAN IN THE WORLD
Olga Vujovic, Kritikaz.com, 08.04.2020
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"Absolutely Reliable!" with Ralf Wetzel, International Clown Festival Zagreb, 12.03.2020
…Ralf Wetzel, performed "Absolutely Reliable", directed by Lee Delong at the Triko Circus Studio….His Zagreb performance, described as a "solo mask show", is one of the most exciting performances I've seen in our theaters lately!
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He is George, a middle-aged man, middle-class man, and a mediocre manager by profession, who recounts his life to us in search of love, friendship and affirmation.
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... a poignant story, masked to unrecognizability and unusual voice modulations, Wetzel evokes deep and sincere sympathy. Thanks to his remarkable interpretation, we do not see Wetzel but George.
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George is the prototype of a modern man….an example of a man who may have conquered the universe but lost the battle against himself.
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And we cannot laugh at such a character, even when he is funny.
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THE WEIRDEST WAY TO TEACH BUSINESS
Jonathan Moules, financial Times, 14.08.2019
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[The] masked character, George, is a version of a prototypical western man based on ... the traumas that alpha males face in a business world now shaped by the need to diversify workforces and for managers to be more empathetic.
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The character of George, a white, middle-aged, middle-class, middle manager [is] desperate for both promotion in his company and for a relationship in his personal life.
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As he gets closer to achieving these goals, George’s inner demons of insecurity, anger and denial get the better of him, to tragic effect.
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DARING WORK!
Sam Chittenden, FringeReview, 25.08.2019
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From the offset Wetzel’s character George is a strange mix of funny and unsettling.
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George is a storyteller, recounting the surprising (to him) story of his romantic liaison with the sensual Josephine. Wetzel sveltely shifts in and out of Josephine’s physique….
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As the tale develops it (and George) becomes more sinister; more surreal….Wetzel’s emotional engagement with his audience is palpable, and we can’t help but empathise. Yet at the same time there is something ominous about his impulsive neediness; something hilariously discomforting about his sensuality on stage, the way he mounts and strokes a chair….
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Of course, things don’t end well, and there is a dark and nicely elliptical ending in sight.
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One of very few pieces of mask work in this year’s fringe, Absolutely Reliable! is a deliciously dark tale, engagingly delivered.
ABSOLUTELY RELIABLE!
Stagecraft: 4 stars
Performance: 5 stars
S.O.D: 4 stars
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Damian Beeson Bullen, Mumbnle Theatre, 14.08.2019
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Mumble Theatre
Overall, the message of the play is driven by the context in which you watch it. If you put the show into a different perspective, you see something different. We discovered that it’s like a prism. It will break light accordingly to how it is projected onto it. Masculinity is one angle, femininity might be another.
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The beautiful & deformed gargoyle that is George comes across sometimes creepy – like serial killer weird – & sometimes catching our sympathies with sweetness.
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… with Wetzel fluctuating between polarized emotions in an astonishing instant – like a magician’s flip of a card – in the same effortless fashion that his 18th century compatriot, Konrad Ekhof, handled both tragedy & comedy famously well.
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He is a superb performer & it is a most addictive & fascinating experience watching him surfing on his own intensity.