Like a volley of Ken Dodd jokes or one of the more circular songs by Sparks, L’Addition tickles its audience into submission and succeeds through sheer force of will. It is the work of performance duo Bert and Nasi (Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas) in collaboration with director Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment and, in its loops, repetitions and variations, it is the comedic equivalent of serial music.
This English-language version (the work was first seen in French at last year’s Avignon festival) is presented in Edinburgh as part of the Here & Now showcase, and sets itself an absurdist challenge: how long can two men riff on one simple scenario, and how far can they test the audience’s patience before the whole thing falls apart?
