Defending the Caveman Review

The longest running solo play in Broadway history, Defending The Caveman, was been adapted by Australian actor and comedian Mark Little. The show ran successfully in London until February 21.

Little is best known as Joe Mangel in Neighbours and took to the stage to deliver some hilarious analogies about the differences between woman and men.

Australian Times journalist Vivienne Hill and her boyfriend Bart went along to see how the battle of the sexes played out to give a review the show an even gender spectrum and get some of the best relationship advice they have had in a long time.


Vivienne’s review: Doing it for the girls
When a play which is going to be performed by a guy starts off with the words ‘all men are assholes’ on two big screens.

From the moment Mark entered the stage he had all couples in the audience hating each other in the first 10 minutes.

I could see people looking at each other in disgust as he talked about the gross things boys do to girls to annoy them and the reasons why ladies get toey with their lads when things don’t work out right.

However, Mark was just setting the scene.

As the play develops it gets funnier and you see couples smiling at each other and appreciating their differences in a big way.

The jokes are absolutely hilarious and the real life analogies to the caveman were so spot on.

In the show, Mark produced fantastic observations of how females and males communicate differently in western culture.

A solo production has got to be the hardest performance an actor can possibly do. For one man to hold the audience’s attention for so long and remember such a long script is an enormous task.

If you’re having trouble understanding the opposite sex. This is the best relationship advice you’ll get in a long time.

Bart’s review: Defending the caveman
As I write this my dear sweet girlfriend Vivienne wants to talk to me, and she is complaining that I can’t do two things at once.

I am reminded of one of the dozens of insightful and very funny observations made by Mark Little in his show Defending the Caveman.

This specific observation being that as much as they try, men genuinely can’t do two things at once. I hear you brother.
So I enjoyed the show immensely as it managed to be quite funny without ever sounding disingenuous or going over the top in the search for laughs.

I went into the show fully expecting it to be a drawn out homage to ‘According to Jim’ or ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ type humour (ie. ain’t them ladies be crazy!!), but I came out having had a thoroughly enjoyable and actually enlightening experience.

Mark’s caveman analogies are never stretched too far, and he does a fantastic job by not veering off course into broad gender generalisations and stereotypes in one direction, or aloof pseudo-psychology and philosophy the other.