GARRY STARR: PENGUIN CLASSICS
GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS, Bay 17, Carriageworks, 17 June-5 July 2026. Photography by Matt Crockett
Lightly disguised as a penguin, Garry Starr (Damien Warren-Smith) delivers 70 minutes of clever, silly, deep, frivolous, bold and crazy theatre. There’s something capriciously virtuosic about Classic Penguins. Starr – the Gaulier-trained clown persona – arrives on stage in a top hat, tailcoat, Elizabethan ruff, orange flippers and a shapely pair of legs. Otherwise unhampered by clothes, in portentous tones he announces he’s here to save Literature from extinction. How? Throw light on a shelf-full of Penguin Classics in about 70 minutes.
The stage is sparely dressed: there’s a bookcase for the all-important orange paperbacks and other bits and pieces (a bride’s head, geddit? Geddit?). A video screen displays the cover of a novel for a scene or sketch to either intrigue or illuminate. Each recreates either a key scene or presents a visual joke, from Frankenstein to The Handmaid’s Tale, Moby Dick to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. And with the audience’s enthusiastic help, Starr illustrates just how far Around the World In 80 Days actually is.
What makes Classic Penguins special is the tension between its apparent chaos and underlying precision, and its take-no-prisoners boldness. Some elements are subtle visual riddles; others involve an audience member and grapes. Lots of grapes. Yet more moments elevate pomposity to hitherto unscaled heights. Daring an audience to go with him on incredible journeys culminates in bodysurfing around the auditorium with chortling punters rushing to take part.
While the top hat is taken off and on, there are no changes of costume, and it’s interesting to realise how quickly the naked body becomes no more or less eye-catching than any theatre costume. The show and its one after another casually discarded orange-spined books is excessively more than a laugh a minute. Often, the flashes of brilliance pass so quickly they’re spotted in the rearview mirror. Then there’s the audience participation, and for those whose greatest fear is catching the eye of the prowling performer, the tone is characterised by amiable playfulness rather than cruelty.
A volunteer might exchange hand kisses, be shot, trussed up Gulliver’s Travels-style, or invited to assist with a medical procedure. As it’s 2026, consent is everything. And so is the warmth quickly generated across the footlights. Classic Penguins arrives at Carriageworks trailing a haul of awards and plaudits in its wake: a bouquet of five-star Edinburgh reviews, followed by a sold-out West End season. It scored the big one at Melbourne’s 2025 Comedy Festival, and later this year, there’s a return to London and a season in New York City. In other words, we’re a bit late to this party and now have a priceless chance to catch up. It should not be missed.
As he waddles merrily about the stage (he is performing as a penguin after all) Starr skates from title to title, and character to character with seamless, idiotic seriousness. The significance of that is amazing: Classic Penguins is so unusual – so unlikely – that in lesser flippers it could go horribly wrong. However, Warren-Smith is such a consummate, confident performer it would take an iceberg not to warm to him and then entirely capitulate.
It’s an 18+ show – be aware – yet if you’re horrified by a beautiful male body or audience participation, it’s time to give yourself a break. Garry Starr is marvellous.
