Comedian Jordan Brookes’ latest show is a high-brow, slightly terrifying concept, and deals with the not uncommon theme of getting older. Well, sort of. Brookes’ reaction to approaching his thirties seems to be to become completely obsessed with the RMS Titanic, “because that’s what people do.”
Paradoxically, “Fontonelle” takes its name from a digressive passage in which Brookes talks about his fascination with the titular soft piece of baby head, saying that if adults still had it, it would probably be used as a really stupid suicide button. If we say that everything has its place here, then the implication is that Brookes has become involved with the Titanic rather than focusing on his own children. But that may be overdoing it. And the show really is quite a bit about the Titanic.
When he comes out wearing a sort of miniature captain’s hat, the actual boat, the film and, most importantly, the relatively unknown stage musical come to the fore. Brookes apparently made a three-hour round trip to Southampton to see the musical, thought it was rubbish and so decided to write his own, which we hear in ever larger, crazier doses as the show progresses.
There are things about “Fontanelle” that I don’t want to give away. The simplest thing, though, is to say that it’s remarkable that Brookes would think up something like this, and even more remarkable that he’s actually managed to pull it off: it’s a much more sophisticated show than it first seems, and I’d be curious to see if he can actually make money from it. As I said, you could see it as a very oddly coded response from Brookes to the passing of the years and the end of his youth. Or you could just see it as a master of weird stuff doing more weird stuff, and doing it brilliantly. Either way, it’s a blast – Brookes may be getting older and weirder, but his art will live on.
