OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 14-16 December 2011

WITH all its glitz and gratuity, the seasonal pantomime is not for everyone.

For the most cynical among us, fun-filled tales of sappily-ever-after are never going to cut it. Thankfully, director John Batty at Eden Court has prescribed the perfect antidote to pantomime – a pantidote, if you will – by dusting down David Kane’s Dumbstruck.

Dumbstruck poster image

Written in 1994 by Scottish playwright David Kane, Dumbstruck takes place in a theatrical boarding house in the early 1960s, owned by the eccentric Mrs. Miranda Husk. When a German magician moonlighting as a mercy killer and a religious fanatic civil servant arrive in the house of success-hungry performers, chaos ensues as each character battles it out for their own success. Under Batty’s superior direction, the cast give genuinely hilarious performances, in a bittersweet satire of actors and Scottish character in general.

The real brilliance of this play is that it excels despite having a completely unpersuasive central character. Johnny Ramone, a down-on-his-luck Frank Sinatra wannabe, is a part that looks good on paper, but appears feeble on stage. Andrew W. Denovan visibly struggles as he tries to pull off a character that one feels at times was hastily crafted in order to tie all the meandering story lines together. When Ramone’s true origins are revealed, the plot twist falls flat, and it is fortunate that the play moves at such a pace that this can almost go unnoticed.

Nevertheless, this performance of Dumbstruck is a triumph, and is greatly complemented by a well-chosen selection of low-key musical numbers, including forgotten classics by Brenda Lee and Bobby Darin. Songs in a regular pantomime can appear awkward and impractical (why does he start singing in the woods? And why do all of the animals join in?), but in this case, they don’t just work, but really work, and provide some of the finest comic moments of the play. The perfect ‘palette cleanser’ for the panto season.

© Rowan Macfie, 2011

Links

• Eden Court Theatre