OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 26 October 2008

Simon Munnery as Queen Elizabeth and Miles Jupp as Raleigh

COMEDIANS Miles Jupp and Simon Munnery took a trip on the time machine of Stuart Lee’s mind on to the stage of Eden Court’s One Touch Theatre. This was another historical production from Lee’s pen, following in the footsteps of his hilarious romp through Scotland with Boswell and Johnson, also played by the two comics.

In this show Jupp played Raleigh as a kind of upper class market trader pedalling his wares after bringing back the delights of both the potato and tobacco from the New World. As Raleigh he was determined to woo Munnery who played the stern, white-faced, Queen Elizabeth.

If you take Blackadder, mix it with Monty Python and add more than a dash of panto (Oh yes… we were asked to sing) you won’t be too far from the atmosphere they brought to the stage. The show flowed from one bizarre scenario to another with Elizabeth constantly threatening to behead her suitor with all the sinister charm of a spider devouring its partner after mating.

There was also a little scene about a cloak and a puddle – I bet no one saw that coming. Miles Jupp sang some jolly songs and there was a South American Princess who played various instruments and was the butt of most of the cruder material.

I’m sure there was a plot but it was largely irrelevant as Jupp and Munnery romped from one surreal encounter to another. By far the best scene in the play was a re-enactment of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, complete with galleons and cannon fire. This was a brilliant little piece of theatre and well worth seeing on its own even if you happened to miss the rest of the play.

This show was a little disappointing after the duo’s sharp and extremely witty portrayal of Johnson and Boswell. By far the most entertaining sections of the play were when these fine comedians left the straitjacket of the script and ad-libbed with the audience. Both performers seemed a little ill at ease in the characters they inhabited, as if they did not entirely believe in the roles or the play and, after all, if they did not believe in it them how could the audience?

Overall, although the show was always surreal and frequently entertaining, the humour never really took flight and the comedy was slightly self-conscious. The lack of anything approaching a real plot left the audience confused and perhaps wondering, on the journey home, what they had actually witnessed.

If I had to become a schoolmaster and write an end of term report on the show, its performers and its author, only one phrase comes to mind: “Could do better.”

© John Burns, 2008

Links

• Late But Live
• Eden Court Theatre
• John Burns at Purple Comedy