ANYONE having read Bill Bryson's books will already know how observant, sometimes serious and self-deprecatingly funny they are.

The challenge of a one-man performance is to bring this all to life without losing the essential characteristics of the original. Steve Steen does this in a rather bravura performance. He never misses a beat; his timing is excellent and his grasp of his material is impeccable.

Part of the excellence lies in Steen's ability to switch matchlessly from character to character through voice change. Australia provides a rich vein of characters and accents to do this. Aided by simple yet effective lighting changes and perfectly timed sound effects, even down to the tuning of a radio station, Steen confidently and deservedly holds the audience's attention.

We are there with him on the Indian Pacific Railroad; we can feel the hot desert sun of the interior; we swat the flies and are relieved that the approaching hungry crocodile is only a dream. This is a tribute to Steen's ability to engage the audience and take us on board his journey to the world's largest island.

He is not only able to do the comic pieces very well the drunken scene was particularly effective, but the more serious aspects are also covered without the overall pace flagging. The murder of aborigines at Myall Creek is extremely poignant without becoming mawkish.

Although not designed as a tourist ad for Australia, the performance made me want to look at the latest Qantas brochure to see if I could have just as much fun Down Under.

Tuesday 30th March 2004
Bucks Free Press

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