Justine Malone has crafted this parody, I’ll Be Back, based on the first two films in the Terminator franchise.
In the show, Malone conjures up a variety of characters as a computer scientist is sent back in time to prevent Judgement Day. In the small space underneath the bar at The Glitch, a video screen pulls us back to 1997.
Three directors are credited on I’ll Be Back: Ezra Dobson, Emma Webb, and Alex Coke. Their efforts encourage this one-woman show to be funny, clever, enjoyable, and chilling for those who recall the pop-up windows, cheery office assistant (Clippy!), and error messages of Windows 95.
When our heroine is turned into a Terminator and sent back to the day before Judgement Day, she finds herself back at a simpler time, where Blockbuster Video was the place to get weekend entertainment, and a monorail ran “between BHS and Debenhams”.
We’re not in Los Angeles. We’re in Dudley, in the West Midlands. In the present day – I think – we are in a John Connor museum that flags up the best of the past, like motorway stops at Little Chef and big shops at Kwik Save.
You may have to be a certain age, or a Terminator obsessive, to fully get on board with all the references, but Malone is a strong performer who rarely lets the pace flag.
This is a comedy that relies on physicality. The woman’s metamorphosis into a cyborg is hilarious, and all done without props. In an effort to blend in with the nineties crowd, even a Werthers Original is briefly sucked (and spat out!).
The male characters are endearingly dim, from Malone, the gamer brother, to Brian the geek. There’s a joke in there somewhere about even the ever-cheerful Chippy being less neanderthal than the human counterparts encountered by Malone, as Skynet’s star coder.
This is an entertaining hour in the company of someone who clearly has affection for this film franchise and a cheeky sense of humour.
Oldies can chuckle at the idea that Windows 95’s office assistant takes nearly half the show to update a CV, as well as the ponderous ‘safe to shut down’ procedure.
****
I’ll Be Back continues at The Glitch until 19 Jan, before resurfacing at the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, on 7 Mar. Follow the show’s Instagram account.
Photo credit: Simon Vail