A mixed bowl of nuts

Bank teller Edgar Chambers is, too be blunt, a big weirdo. This is the premise of Monkey Nuts, the latest from writer and director Geraldine Naidoo and actor Matthew Ribnick. Currently showing at the recently-refurbished Auto & General Theatre on the Square in Sandton, it is a one-man show about an unfortunate fellow whose greatest love in life is monitoring the prices of groceries.

Edgar Chambers is socially awkward. His only human interactions take place at work, on the phone to telemarketers and at the grocery store when he interrupts innocent shoppers who are unknowingly cheating themselves out of a good bargain. He is a serial competition-enterer and it is this obsession which lands him in the mess that serves as the play’s storyline.

And it is hilarious. Edgar has won an all-expense paid trip to Italy for himself and three friends. But he doesn’t have any, so he has to find some. There is a plethora of personalities in the play, all of them portrayed by Ribnick, whose quick transitions between characters are fantastic. There’s Edgar, there’s Edgar’s arch-nemesis, there’s an eccentric work colleague, a mad Scotsman and a telemarketer-turned-friend who’s changed Edgar’s name from Edgar to Edgars.

And that’s just some of them. Audience members are wowed by the array of accents he sustains; the subtle changes in body language and the sharp shifts from the hilarious to the devastating. And this is what makes the play so enjoyable. As a performer Ribnick is addictive. From the get-go the audience knows Edgar’s story will end happily, which makes the narrative undeniably predictable and perhaps a bit sentimental. But that doesn’t matter. By the end of it I loved Edgar and I wanted him to be happy; I wanted to see him triumph and I wanted to know he left the stage with a group of people who care about him.

In 2011 Monkey Nuts received the coveted Naledi award for Best Comedy Performance. Ribnick and Naidoo’s previous collaborations; The Chilli Boy and Hoot, also received this prestigious award.

You’ll laugh a lot . You’ll also smile a lot, but not only because you’re happy. You’ll smile a kind of sad smile because there’s an Edgar in all of us.

Monkey Nuts is running at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square until 10 May.