Slim Limits – The Second Coming of Gods Cowboy (**) until Sun, Mar 8, 2009

March 1, 2009

George Catsi has a great idea buried in this show. His character, Rev Slim, is a “disturbed evangelist, dishing out songs, salvation and spit”.

When his deep, southern, US accent is on full throttle, it is good. When it slips, the energy in the room slips.

Rev Slim charicatures those much maligned evangelical preachers who strut about, holier than thou, playing with emotions to manipulate the audience. Rev Slim gets this at a surface level but sadly stays there. There are a few moments of promise as he whips the “congregation” into a frenzy of amen-shouting lost souls but the pauses and “set ups” (including the script prop) allow the fervour to dissipate.

It also does not help that Rev Slim works without a full backing track. He needs some form of music playing in the background, just like the stereotypical southern baptist preachers had bands playing a continual emotional soundtrack to their tirades. This will capture the energy he creates help him go more deeply into his character, for everyone’s benefit.

There is a sense of “first draft” about this show. It has promise but is a long way from the promised land.