A show that opens with an uninspired writer trying to write at their desk, but instead miserably eating chocolate, is a bad sign. You can’t help feeling the author’s imagination has gone out the window (which is incidentally the only other prop in this ingeniously stripped-back set design) and that they are just writing exactly what they were doing a few months before the festival.

Luckily, you know not to stop at this potentially bad sign, and for that you’ll be rewarded. This light-hearted caper is enriched with fun, clever writing which easily wins over the room. Testament to this play’s amusing invention is the fact that this is a murder mystery with only two actors, and yet no clue of the ultimate culprit.

Alex Ellis and Phil Ormsby are mercilessly melodramatic and easily fill La Mama’s small space – unsurprisingly, since they have already toured this show extensively throughout New Zealand. Originally rigging up the sound, set and lighting themselves, they are now joined by director Caitlin Dullard who has brought them and their joyous caper to Melbourne.

This is quite a silly show, but allows for a fantastically physical performance by Ormsby, and the tongue-in-cheek writing elevates it above simple farce. Felicia Fargo (Alex Ellis) and her assistant Dorian (one of Ormsby’s many characters) have the sharpest lines. With a few plot twists and turns, you’ll find yourself really enjoying it. Especially if you’re a New Zealander – apparently chocolate fishes are really big there.

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