Sam Dugmore resurrects, for one last mission, MAN-BO, the macho-himbo retread from the dysfunctional 80s. True to type, MAN-BO remains a man apart. He single-handedly refights old wars, destroys new enemies and tramples over history, all the while, dealing with his newfound feelings.
Today's MAN-BO is more the Sensitive New Age type who’s now busy dealing with his anger issues. He hopes he can soon say “love” without gagging. But, it’s a long road. But to get the ball rolling, Mambo needs to tune up that old killing machine with a quick gym fix. Then it's on the save the world.
Sam Dugmore is one part of the multinational comedic-physical theatre troupe The Latebloomers. Comprising an Australian (Dugmore), an Englishperson (Jonathan Tilley), and a Swede (Ollie Nilsson), they first met each other when attending Lecoq—the esteemed French school for physical theatre, modern mime and clowning.
Reminiscent of the originating process of Mary Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein’s monster, MAN-BO grew from the ponderings of the three colleagues during Perth Fringe. It was a hot and sunny afternoon when, in early 2020, The Latebloomers found themselves speculating about the sort of shows they might create if ever left to their own devices. Dugmore resisted; “I wanted to collaborate with the others...”. When pushed, he said, “jokingly... ‘I'd probably make it about Rambo and male aggression'.”
Then, as with Mary Shelley’s stormy night on Lake Geneva, fate intervened in the form of COVID. For nearly a year, Dugmore and Nilsson were locked down in the Adelaide region while Tilley was stranded in the UK. But it's an ill wind...
Readying themselves for various post-pandemic eventualities, Dugmore and Nilsson spent their confinements developing one-person shows. When it was evident in early 2021 that a reduced Adelaide Fringe would go ahead, Dugmore was ready to reveal his creation.
To see a Latebloomer’s show several times over is to appreciate the piece as an intricately constructed four-movement symphony; delivered impeccably, with agility and grace. So, it wasn't easy to imagine how Dugmore, who thrives on collegiality, would create a one-person show. He had reservations. “You tear yourself apart; questioning yourself because you don't have someone there to rely on; to bounce off or fall back on”. Isolated by COVID, Dugmore, along with director Jess Clough-MacRae, had no real choice. “I created other characters within [the piece], so I could bounce off myself.”
MAN-BO, the show, is action-packed, layered with plots and twisting subplots. Action-man MAN-BO never lets up, striding slo-mo through bombs and explosions, tossing off grenades, hanging off helicopters, skydiving, scaling fortresses, escaping on motorbikes; all the while baying at impossible love. Playing, miming, intimating and even recruiting (from the audience) all the parts, Dugmore bounces off himself with the rapidity of an Olympic ping-pong contender. MAN-BO succeeds as one person’s immense juggling act of human components rather than inert pins.
Despite its small scale – one man, a small room and few props – MAN-BO unfolds with a satisfying “epic-filmic” quality. It’s as much a homage to the action movie genre. MAN-BO is “a mash-up of all the war films I've seen,” says Dugmore, and “I've seen a lot of war films, a lot”. MAN–BO may be a comic creation, but to Dugmore, the genre remains sacred, even if a little twisted.
Dugmore expands the show's filmic qualities with an epic soundscape of expansive scores typical to the genre. Saccharine pop songs interpose to help locate and articulate genuine emotional moments. The song selections suggest the high points of both Dugmore’s and MAN-BO’s cultural aspirations – maybe just a moment prior to Karen Carpenter's sad demise. “My soundtrack would be the 70s... I think I was born in the wrong era,” Dugmore laments. “I should have lived my prime through the 70s.”
The character of MAN-BO, most obviously, is a mash-up of the super-action prototypes borne of the two major Stallone series from the 70s and 80s—Rocky and Rambo. But there are also recognisable references to Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now, and cameos from Jean Claude Van Dam, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and not forgetting Action Man Doll.
Dugmore describes his creation as “the greatest action man of all time; he's an elite killing machine.” Yet, he’s also “a nice guy. Sadly, he can't express himself properly… It all comes out in rage and anger.”
Two characters—“The Colonel” and “Contact Lady”—serve to anchor and propel MAN-BO and his mission. Both lack a specific identity, like Action Man-Doll lacks a penis.
The Colonel is the mentor-father figure. As Dugmore points out, “there's always someone in those films… that leads the character astray, but at the same time, is trying to nurture them.” The Colonel is the only one who truly understands him, and MAN-BO reciprocates with fierce loyalty.
Then there “Contact Lady”, who Dugmore plays as invisible. It’s an apt metaphor for the one-dimensional romantic interest roles inserted into such movies. “Do you ever get the female character’s name?” Dugmore wryly notes, “I mean, come on.”
Another intriguing invisible character is Adrian. It seems that Rocky's girlfriend Adriane has morphed ambiguously into Adrian. MAN-BO finds it easier to express true feelings towards Adrian, a unconsummatable love object, once the character is dead.
In these post-post-modern times, it would be easy to call out MAN-BO as a problematic, misshapen, masculinist-misogynist, hell-bent on beating up people of colour and difference; and by extension, a natural homophobe – even if he hadn’t thought that one through. But it's hardly the point. In his time, Stallone’s Rambo was apolitical. He represented the PTSD-battered veteran’s perspective, one abandoned by the political process. Like Springsteen, Stallone was appalled by Reaganite attempts to appropriate his work to advance their agenda.
Dugmore’s MAN-BO is a product of his childhood memories. As a child, he loved action movies, recalling, “You think this is amazing; it's so action-packed... There's so much happening."
Those action movies provided the scripts for his childhood play, just as previous action movies had done for (mainly) small boys worldwide in other times. Dugmore recalls that he and his two brothers "would jump on the couch and start shooting each other and throwing explosives.”
Led by the predictable tropes of the genre, today’s MAN-BO guides audiences back into a child-like world of truly innocent play, despite its implied violence. It tells us that it's ok to return to a child-like state. Indeed, the experience is restorative. The process is cheaper than a shrink; more entertaining, and way more effective.
Dugmore frames “the original concept [of MAN-BO]...as heroism, and what little boys see when they're growing up... But when you grow up, who's the real hero?”. As Dugmore grew older, he began to understand that his playtime content was, “in reality; not funny at all. Killing, violence, aggression, suppression. Not funny... when you become aware of that at an older age, and you see it happening around the world, you think, holy shit, this is real?”
But Dugmore’s MAN-BO has evolved and is now finding courage in self-help books. Comic possibilities flow as modern-man MAN-BO squeezes his new age masculinity – an ongoing project – into the constraining constructs of another age.
MAN-BO isn’t gay. But, in Dugmore's hands, the possibilities may just be just emerging. As Dugmore and director Clough-MacRae deconstructed the original template, they could hardly believe its inherent campiness. Dugmore notes that the movies are “so over the top;... Rambo III... he's got his shirt off ... he's running around... it's really camp...". And in Rocky III there's "this huge workout montage between the big, tall, Russian guy (Dolph Lundgren) and Rocky... he's ripped, and they've always got their shirts off. It's so sexual…“. The words of the Euro-schlock backing track gives it all away as vision cuts between competing slabs of beef; “hearts of fire, strong desire.” It was always there in plain sight.
Rebecca Bell-Metereau, film academic and author (Hollywood Androgyny and The Erotics of Suffering), states that the Stallone/Schwarzenegger films appeared when the depictions of the masculine ideal were undergoing radical realignment. Thin lipped John Wayne died in 1979.
Bell-Metereau says that the movie of "both stars incorporate a complex and fascinating mixture of stereotypically masculine and feminine signals as inherent to their star personas.” She further adds, “both actors modified their star personas by incorporating ... the kind of irony that involves self-deprecating humour and exaggeration, typical of the growing camp sensibility.” Someone better tell MAN-BO.
Even Mary Shelley’s creation wanted to be liked. What then, appeals most to Dugmore about his creation? “[MAN-BO] wants to do good. He tries his hardest to do good, and then he's trying to better himself. He's aware that there's something broken, and he's trying to fix it. That's what I love about him. He's giving it a go."
In MAN-BO, Dugmore has created an out-of-time, has-been, man-monster, who at the core, is entirely lovable. On his own personal growth path, this old retread has plenty more wars left to fight, and just as many with himself. Chances are, we'll be seeing plenty more of his adventures in time to come. He's got a lot of living to do. And eventually, MAN-BO will be able to say “love” without gagging.
Playing at least five characters throughout performance he regularly changes voices and was having a great time on stage looking like a kid playing in his room..
—SeeDoEat
Dugmore is superb! His mastery of physical comedy is magnificent. His flexibility in body and facial expressions conjure up images that are incredibly believable to us.
—GlamAdelaide
Dugmore digs deep into his kitbag of an actor’s weaponry – on-the-run sound effects, dance-style moves..., pantomime, ventriloquism, vocal virtuosity, physical comedy, puppetry, and farcical facial distortions.
—The Barefoot Review
Adelaide Fringe: weekly Best Comedy Award
Sydney Comedy Festival; Best Newcomer