‘Tani draws laughter from the audience from the off with his appearance and witty asides’
The premiere of this co-production from Teatro Pomodoro and Splats Entertainment draws upon the talent of Simone Tani with musical accompaniment from fellow Sardinian Marco Riola and technical support from Xenia Bayer, but ultimately felt more like a development piece rather than the finished product.
Conjuring themes of family, religion, art, and quantum physics from the audience, Casu Martzu explores the meaning and purpose of life from the perspective of a cheese maggot. Not any old cheese maggot mind, this one is very much based on the larvae of flies that break down the fats of a traditional Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese through fermentation in case you were wondering.
Suitably costumed by Carmen Arquelladas, Tani draws laughter from the audience from the off with his appearance and witty asides, but whilst there are funny elements littering the piece throughout, it is a slow turning (cheese) wheel that relies too much on dialogue rather than action with the occasional musical interludes. The gospel for writing and performance is to show not tell and given his well-deserved reputation as a skilled physical theatre performer, I was expecting something more in this vein and at a faster pace, which was reflected in a somewhat subdued albeit supportive audience who were clearly familiar with Tani’s body of work: I’m not sure a neutral audience would be as appreciative.
There is a clearly a strong relationship between Tani and Rista but some of the humour perhaps relied upon a knowledge of Sardinian in-jokes and the fusion of the two art forms felt forced rather than flowing.
Matters weren’t helped by venue management which resulted in a delayed start of fifteen minutes to accommodate a handful of latecomers who rather than take an available seat paused to chatter to friends in the audience. These things are never easy, but Unity Theatre does have the advantage of being able to seat latecomers in the top rear without detriment to the on-stage action so my preference would always be to get on with the show.
Coming in at almost an hour, this could be significantly reduced with some tightening up which doesn’t leave much of a show left, but there are some good ideas incubating here that could hatch in a different dimension and I would certainly encourage these to be further explored, perhaps with the introduction of another character(s) for Tani to work off.
Review Date: 25th April 2026
Star Rating: THREE