Reviewer: Christine Stanton
Writer & Director: Lee James Broadwood
“Festive Farce”
2 / 5
When Mary decides to throw a dinner party for Christmas – she doesn’t realise her husband Vasilis has planned to put her murder on the menu! But even though he has meticulously planned each step of the process, as well as creating two backup plans incase anything goes slightly wrong, the one thing he hadn’t accounted for is him accidentally murdering the wrong person.
As the friends gather together downstairs to tell Christmas jokes under strict instuction from host Mary (Su-Lyn Chow Seegoolam), Vasilis (Dean Mantsos) is in the bedroom trying to rectify the situation, by hiding the body and enacting plan b to still ensure the original task of murdering his wife can be completed. But, as is common in the world of farce, nothing as as simple as it could be. The friends quickly discover that Angie (Penny Tomai) has been murdered – and it must have been someone in their group. Accusations start flying and more people begin to drop dead in a murder mystery party style, the only difference, is that everyone seems to come back to life at some point, because finishing the job is seemingly harder than it first appears.
This kooky horror comedy written and directed by Lee James Broadwood is the epitome of farce – each character has been created as amplified stereotypes, from the ditzy goldigger (Maria Carmel), theatrical film critic (Fabrizio Tullio) to the practically deaf sugar grandaddy (Michael Davies), it’s a combination of strange characters and over the top personalities that allow the farcical comedy from the script to be extracted. Vasilis although the murderer, is the most likeable of the bunch, his humorous narration about his plans and reflection after each scene a great comedic anecdote to the main storyline. The other characters have been written to be almost too exaggerated though – their loud exclamations and insufferable personalities become grating throughout the show, losing the original humour that encompassed them and becoming irritating rather than enjoyable, making them better received in small does rather than a 100minute long show.
The main issue with the show is that there is a lot of re-setting throughout. Short scenes are performed for a couple of minutes, then the lights go down, ‘Jingle Bells’ is played on the speaker, the furniture is moved around on stage, and then another short scene is done before the same cycle happens again on repeat. This is more prevalent in Act 2, as the characters constantly switch between the bedroom, garden and dining area – and although the ambition is there to create a ‘new room’ for the audience, there are not enough changes to the set (other than pushing a few chairs out of the way) to warrant a full-blown redecoration in the dark. The breaks force a lot of the momentum and comedy to be lost and ultimately help to detract audience focus, so a good compromise would be to have half of the stage as one room and the other half in darkness until the scene change requires them to move there, ensuring a better flow for the narrative.
With a few of the issues ironed out and a slight dialing down on the characters, this could be a really festive farce to watch in the lead-up to Christmas. Who knows, it might even help when you sit round the table and play Cluedo with the family – a venomous spider in the bedroom or candy cane dildo to the head may not be a traditional move, but it definitely seemed to at least partially work in this show.
Runs Until 23 December 2023
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