Review: Mark Little in Defending The Caveman, York Theatre Royal (From York Press)

Review: Mark Little in Defending The Caveman, York Theatre Royal

10:02am Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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MARK Little keeps defending the caveman, and why not.

Since 1999 in London, he has made this one-man show his own, all the more so since American writer Rob Becker sold the rights to his Broadway hit in 2007.

That year, the former Neighbours soap star and Big Breakfast host brought his revised version to the Grand Opera House, and it was this specifically British edition that the genial Australian revived so enjoyably at the Theatre Royal on Monday and Tuesday.

Unlike The Vagina Monologues, Defending The Cavemen has equal appeal to men as well as women, despite its opening assertion that “all men are ****holes”.

Little presented an entirely reasonable case for men and women simply being different, explaining their mutual misunderstanding through their contrasting language, culture and history.

Everything in the battle of the sexes rests on the divide between man being the one-tracked hunters and woman the multi-tasking gatherer, suggested Little.

As relaxed as his attire of sandals, open shirt and jeans on his Flintstones-style living room set, he worked Tuesday’s audience with a lawyer’s persuasive skills and a stand-up’s timing, while making light of the distraction of the Minster’s bell-ringing practice.

Little’s physical characterisation was a delight, his depiction of a day’s fishing being particularly evocative, and if the tone was playful rather than vengeful, there was still a more serious point about man’s 21st century metrosexual status leaving him unsure whether is Arthur or Martha.