TheatreguideLondon
www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk
The TheatreguideLondon Review
Puckoon
Leicester Square Theatre Spring 2011
Spike
Milligan's comic novel imagines the 1922 border between Ireland's north
and south being drawn right through a tiny village, so that drinks are
cheaper at one end of the bar than the other and bodies being taken
from funeral to grave have to detour for a passport photo.
In true
Milliganesque fashion that premise, rich in comic potential as it is,
is just the taking-off point for such flights of imagination as a
midget's widow, a singing Chinese policeman, a ne'er-do-well who keeps
complaining to the author about the legs that have been written for
him, and a Scout jamboree featuring a performance of Julius Caesar, and
for gags like (brace yourself) 'Be silent when speaking to an officer!'
and 'The Lord will provide, but to date He's behind in His payments.'
When Milligan isn't allowing himself and us the pleasure of his various digressions, he eventually finds a plot of sorts in two bumbling IRA men who attempt to smuggle explosives across the border in a coffin at the same time the village priest is overseeing the rescuing of the recently departed from the ignominy of Protestant graves.
Vincent Higgins'
stage adaptation for Northern Ireland's Big Telly Theatre Company adds
the further comic complication of casting it for six actors, most of whom
double and sextuple roles, frequently having to play scenes with
themselves when they're not also being the back-up band.
This production
comes to London after a long tour (to venues such as The Old Courthouse
in Antrim and St. Dominic's Grammar School For Girls in Belfast), and at the preview performance I attended
some in the cast seemed to have lost the energy a fragile trifle like
this requires.
At its best, this
is all thoroughly silly, thoroughly inconsequential and thoroughly
enjoyable, but also thoroughly fringe-level, and with some of the snap
and polish fading it has patches that don't quite rise even to that.
If
director
Zoe Seaton can recharge everyone's batteries for the London run, and if
it regains throughout the level of comic absurdity it has at
its best moments, Puckoon will delight those who are already Milligan
fans and create new ones.
Gerald Berkowitz
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Review - Puckoon - Leicester Square 2011
