Press Reviews
Moor's face still resembles a Ralph Steadman cartoon and he still has a brain the size of a planet but his onstage character has matured from gawky gimp to cute charmer.
Now Moor is joined by Janice Phayre in a logical extension of his move towards writing about relationships. The result is a two-hander with wide appeal: a sort of Bridget Jones meets Melvyn Bragg.
Moor plays George, Phayre plays Flip, a gormless yet adorable oddball couple who endear us with their vulnerability. They seem destined to float in a fairytale existence, until the strangest thing happens. The Earth enters an area of the galaxy engulfed by a cloud that warps reality in such a way that all Earth's inhabitants are granted three wishes.
The most amazing things happen: football scores reach in their thousands; dying people recover; sadly, some foolish folk wish for a Bosch. Yet their fairytale is undone by their three wishes. Thoughtlessness and reality get in the way to ensure their wishes don't turn out as planned.
Ben Moor's balanced script boasts mathematical symmetry and precision. Witty outtakes enhance rather than divert from the narrative drive and the content holds pure girlie "aahh" moments and elegantly intellectual word-plays in equilibrium.
Directed with a light, deft hand by Erica Whyman and performed with just the right balance of wit and sentimentality, Three Wishes is a harmoniously proportioned Rubik's cube of the most delightful ideas.
Five Star Review
Gabe Stewart, Evening News, 7th August 2001
Is there a new spin you can put on the
perennial first date 'if you had three wishes'
question? Is it possible to do without going
all mawkish and Disney on us? It most
certainly is, and it's attributable almost
single-handedly to Ben Moor, writer and star
of this incredible show. Backed up
more than ably by Janice Phayre, we are
introduced out of sync to a doomed couple who
weren't quite careful enough in what they
wished for. Through their eyes we are taken on
a fantastical journey - part Douglas
Adams, part Steve Coogan - while Moor, our
primary guide, imparts upon us metaphysical
wisdom combined with some of the funniest,
freshest thoughts you are likely to hear at
the Festival this year. Professional,
exceptionally clever and expertly delivered,
this is a show that will go much further
than the Fringe.
Five Star Review
Phil Maynard, Three Weeks, 20th August 2001
From the tightrope-walking wife in A
Supercollider For the Family to the
octogenarian scientist Modolia, women have
always played a major part in Ben Moor's
one-man shows.
The relationships he conjures tend to be
rose-tinted fantasies in which he is the gushy
lover, while she is a figure of electrifying
independence. Flip Lemon, the sparky
girlfriend in Three Wishes, is typical - only
this time we get to see her for ourselves.
Janice Phayre brings to Flip a delicious
matter-of-factness: it's easy to see how
this woman might write a self-help book called
Shut Up and Cope. With a smaller stage to
fill, Moor reins in his usual physical
exuberance - his George is the most staid
character in his repertoire.
Flip and George's relationship is utterly
normal, marked by petty disagreements and tiny
disappointments. And when the world enters a
magic cloud for a month, during which time
everyone gets three wishes granted, there is
something sadly familiar about the couple's
accidentally voiced desires: I wish she could
be different, I wish we'd never met.
This could be Moor's best show so far: a
charming, irreverent but unflinching
examination of a relationship in decline
that keeps the groanworthy puns to a
minimum, sentimentality under control and
realism firmly allied to fairy-tale
invention.
Three Star Review
Maddy Costa, The Guardian, 23rd August 2001
Last
April, as the records show, an astral cloud
enveloped the earth and for four weeks we all
had the chance to make three wishes come true.
Since then, understandably, things have never
been the same. This romantic comedy tells the
personal experience of two ordinary people
before, during and after the event. George and
Flip are a splendidly scatty, perfectly
matched couple who proudly announced
their engagement the day before the cloud
came. Now they have got their wishes, what
could go wrong?
Beautifully crafted vignettes relate
their tale with a neat narrative technique,
taking the concept to its logical absurdities,
and there are more than a few laughs in the
telling. Aided by Erica Whyman's sensitive
direction, Ben Moor and Janice Phayre
have a dreamy yet focused delivery that
instantly connects. From the moment they
walk on, they make an endearing, convincing
couple you want to wrap up and take home with
you.
As a writer, Moor's imagination occasionally
oversteps himself, but under the
delightful dizziness lies a remarkably moral
play that tackles trust, as the characters
question their expectations of each other.
Nick Awde, The Stage, 23rd August 2001
In his latest romantic comedy,
writer/performer Ben Moor takes a
bitter-sweet look at what happens when you
get what you wish for.
For one month the Earth is enveloped in a
mysterious wish-granting cloud. Everyone gets
three wishes, subject to certain conditions.
Body shapes, personal wealth, politically
sensitive situations and football scorelines
go haywire. And one likeable couple's
relationship changes drastically, as they wish
in haste and repent at leisure.
The gangly Moor plays George, internet
entrepreneur and old school romantic, while Janice
Phayre, of comedy duo Susan & Janice, is
a natural in the role of scatty,
self-help book publisher Flip.
The play deals cosily with their courtship and
crisis, but it's the little superfluous
details and comic asides rather than the
development of their relationship that gives
the show character.
Moor is best on tangential observations about
incidental characters we never meet, or the
latest Cuban television import. Relevant or
not, these witty touches are the play's
herbs and spices. But when they make
Three Wishes into a big-budget Hollywood
romantic comedy, with Gwyneth Paltrow and
Robert Downey Jr, they'll leave all that
good flavour out.
Three Star Review
Fiona Shepherd, The Scotsman, 16th August
2001
