Get It Up! - Melbourne Fringe

Capitano Béchamel Duvet dreams of being a bad-boy-sex-magician-pirate-cowboy and is mounting a self-aggrandising vanity project to prove it. But something stands in his way - a men's health issue he dare not name! Could a mystical Antidote to Chaos hold the secret to getting it up or is he destined for another flop? Commedia dell'Arte takes on toxic masculinity in a fantastical “Hero's Journey” into sex, stage-fright and self-discovery!

Emerging from six years hard time at a private all-boys school, creators Joe Billings and William Hassall realised there was more to each other than sports and locker room banter. They had both been harbouring a love of theatre! Undergoing a second tutelage together at the Clowning Workshop, they were inspired by their taste of Commedia dell'Arte to devise this show. Joe was also fortunate to train in Italy with maestro Antonio Fava, who crafted the mask that is throbbing to be let loose on an unsuspecting Fringe audience!

Commedia dell'Arte is a highly stylised and archetypal form of physical comedy. It was born in 16th century Italy and has endured (with varied success and popularity) to the present day. It pulls no punches in reflecting and lampooning humanity in all its guises.