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So it’s Christmas, a time for cheerful, gushing, sentimental reveals and god-awful pantos. Bah humbug to that. Which is simply why the promise of a comedy horror appeared proper up my road. Blood and gore for Christmas – oh now you’re speaking! Sod Christmas and all that compelled cheerfulness. Except… rattling you Toby Hampton along with your humorous little play all about discovering your Christmas spirit, I didn’t join sentimental tosh, I got here for the senseless violence. The Grotto actually is a play that doesn’t require an excessive amount of deep pondering. No, actually, don’t give it some thought since you…
Rating
Excellent
It’s extra B-movie than The Exorcist, however there’s no denying this foolish little comedy horror play will provide you with sufficient festive spirit to get you thru Christmas dinner with the household.
So it’s Christmas, a time for cheerful, gushing, sentimental reveals and god-awful pantos. Bah humbug to that. Which is simply why the promise of a comedy horror appeared proper up my road. Blood and gore for Christmas – oh now you’re speaking! Sod Christmas and all that compelled cheerfulness. Except… rattling you Toby Hampton along with your humorous little play all about discovering your Christmas spirit, I didn’t join sentimental tosh, I got here for the senseless violence.
The Grotto actually is a play that doesn’t require an excessive amount of deep pondering. No, actually, don’t give it some thought as a result of you will discover all of the plot holes and start to query the way in which it jumps from one thought to the following with none take care of explaining itself. So sure, the plot may in all probability do with a little bit tightening up and higher focus however hey, don’t all the very best B-movie horrors have the identical points? Instead it’s higher to simply go alongside for the journey and settle for it for what it truly is; a particularly foolish and laugh-out-loud Christmas present.
It’s Christmas Eve, and Leyla and Pete (Laurel Marks and author Hampton) are ending up their work in a Santa’s Grotto. They would possibly seem like a cheerful Father Christmas and his helper Elf, however each have causes to dislike the festive season, and it’s not simply due to the annoying children they’ve been coping with all day. Yes, each have misplaced that Christmas spirit. That is, till Claude seems within the guise of the Christmas tree angel, supposedly to assist them rediscover it, though he may need different ulterior motives happening. And Claude received’t allow them to depart till they do. It’s going to require just a few disagreeable secrets and techniques to be revealed. Oh, and a fast anal probe of Sparkles the Elf, however we received’t go too deep into that (so to talk)!
It is definitely rather more comedy than horror (a lot to my slight disappointment, theatre wants rather more horror). The script is loads of foolish traces and puns, together with some ridiculous panto-esque ‘Oh no he didn’t! Oh sure he did!’ callbacks. The horror itself isn’t actually that horrific. Rather it’s some splendidly easy however efficient lighting and sound from Simon Arrowsmith designed to make you bounce. Really, the largest horror is the Christmas music that often pops up, particularly their tackle The Snowman’s ‘We’re Walking within the Air’. Make it cease, please, simply make it cease!
It’s truly Bryan Pilkington who steals the present as Claude the Angel. OK, we by no means truly see Pilkington, as he spends the entire present controlling the angel on a stick from behind the surroundings (I did let you know it was very B movie-esque!). Yet he someway manages to present the pound store angel actual emotion, with little turns and nods and excellent comedian timing. It may shortly develop into an entire mess because it approaches slapstick in nature, however fortunately director Matthew Parker someway retains all of them of their locations, even when that place is the tip of a stick.
Sometimes you possibly can take a play manner too critically, selecting out all its faults, and there’s no denying The Grotto has a lot of them if you happen to scratch the floor. Instead, you simply want to sit down again, snort till your face aches and admire the foolish writing, fantastic comedian performances and a deep anal probe. If you are able to do that, then you definately actually can get pleasure from The Grotto for what it’s: foolish as sin and humorous as hell. But curse you Hampton, I truly felt some Christmas spirit seeping in to me, and everyone knows I simply don’t want that.
Written by: Toby Hampton
Directed by: Matthew Parker
Set, Costume and Lighting design by: The Company
Sound design by: Simon Arrowsmith
The Grotto performs at Drayton Arms Theatre till 30 December. Further info and bookings could be discovered right here.