Natalie Palamides: Laid (MICF)

Winding my way up the subterranean stairwell leading from the Arts Centre's rehearsal space - the aroma of burnt eggs and shaving foam following in my wake - a question kept repeating in my mind: "What the actual fuck did I just see?"

Laid, performed by American comedian and actor Natalie Palamides, is a one-woman wonder that defies conventional categorisation. But if I had to commit to a description, it's perhaps best summed up as a surreal existential parable in which a nursery rhyme story plunges into the murky depths of some deliciously twisted gallows humour.

A giant egg-shaped being nests on stage before hatching into a young woman. After going through the motions of some disturbingly abnormal morning ablutions, she doubles over in pain, writhing and moaning, before laying an egg - a real egg, produced as if by magic from beneath her skirt. Finally, she speaks: "Every day I face the same question. Do I raise my egg, or do I eat it?" Weighing up this Sophie's choice, hunger trumps her maternal instincts and soon enough, to the strains of Chopin's Funeral March, she's tucking into her dearly departed egg-child - served over easy.

Exhausted by her daily infanticide, she heads to bed, only to immediately wake, beginning the cycle once again. And so it follows, post-ablutions, yet another egg is laid, and yet another child is scoffed, in a pitch-black pantomime about motherhood that is seemingly equal parts John Waters, Tim Burton, and Dr Seuss.

But with each revolution of the cycle, slight changes lead off on elaborate tangents. Gradually, they inch along a more compelling narrative that yearns to escape the dank tortures of this bleak and batshit Groundhog Day. And yet, as more and more eggs are smashed, and more and more cycles pass, the grubby slick of yolk smeared across the stage seems to be a mirror image of our anti-heroine's ever-destabilising mind.

Dear reader, I wouldn't blame you if at this point in the review you made a mental note to avoid this show like the plague. But this would be a colossal mistake. For all its many peculiarities, this brilliantly absurdist show is as electrifying as it is edifying and as unexpectedly hilarious as it is boundlessly original. There's some seriously meaty subtext to discover, about the implied obligation of ovulation, and the pressure on women to be both maternal and independent. But nothing in this show is insistent upon its audience. It's full of silliness, obscenity, and slapstick clowning that is perfectly entertaining in its own right - not to mention a mind-bending number of eggs somehow squirrelled away in Palamides' underwear. And yet for those who choose, there's a bristling level of intellect just beneath the shell.

It is no easy task to shoulder a show that is as technically complex, as physically uncompromising, and as relentlessly gross as Laid, but Palamides not only helms the production with ease, she is intensely funny, landing every gag with laser-guided precision, all too delighted to ad lib at any opportunity. It will come as little surprise to those who saw his 2012 Barry Award-winning performance, Befrdfgth, that this eggs-traordinary production was directed by Dr Brown, aka Philip Burgers. It's also a true endorsement of Palamides' skills that an artist as acclaimed as Burgers has joined her as a collaborator.

It won't be for everyone, but if you like some WTF with your LOLs, Laid delivers in spades. Stomachs may be turned and beliefs may be beggared, but more than anything, jaws will be dropped by this one of a kind event.

Natalie Palamides presents Laid until Apr 15 at Arts Centre Melbourne, part of the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.