Tag Archives: Brendan Murphy

The Crown Dual
★★★★

King’s Head Theatre

The Crown Dual

The Crown Dual

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 14th March 2019

★★★★

 

“Clarkson’s script lives up to the challenge, hilariously capturing the essence of the blockbuster series”

 

I must admit that I’m a huge fan of The Crown, and was beyond eager to attend The Kings Head Theatre to watch the new comedy based on the popular series. With season three of The Crown soon approaching, there couldn’t have been a better opportunity for Daniel Clarkson (playwright) and Owen Lewis (director) to present their ambitious production of The Crown Dual. The production promised to condense twenty episodes worth of royal content into a seventy-minute production, cleverly reimagining the story of how Elizabeth Windsor became Queen Elizabeth II. Fortunately, Clarkson’s script lives up to the challenge, hilariously capturing the essence of the blockbuster series by adding a humorous twist to the characters we’ve grown to know so well.

The story centres on Beth Buckingham (played by Rosie Holt), an aspiring actress and avid despiser of Claire Foy, who with the help of Stanley Diamond (Brendan Murphy) her idiotic agent, gets the opportunity to prove her rightful role as Elizabeth in the popular Netflix series. The two actors juggle the characters of the series perfectly, with Stanley playing every character imaginable, including Winston Churchill, Princess Margaret, Prince Philip, Peter Townsend and even the Queen’s favoured corgis. The show should be praised for its comedy value from the start, as the actors hilariously create the opening scene of The Crown. We watch as Beth prances around the stage, dressed in a black costume, twiddling green ribbons and flailing around to the haunting orchestral tune. Stanley interrupts Beth’s performance by holding a ‘skip’ sign, (an option that appears on Netflix) to an eagerly awaiting audience member who complies, therefore cutting Beth’s performance short and sending us all into fits of laughter.

The writing is meticulous in its attention to detail and appreciation of the well-known characters. In particular, Stanley’s portrayal of Winston Churchill was just brilliant. We watched as he amplified the characters mannerisms by laboriously travelling across the stage, dragging repetitively on his cigar and screaming about sticking to tradition and not breaking protocol in their meetings. This same appreciation should be given to both Beth and Stanley for recreating Princess Margaret’s character by reimagining scenes of her writing in her diary with a cigarette and drink in hand. We see Princess Margaret persistently slurping on her drink, declaring through every reading, ‘I’m drunk again.’

The actors really honed in on the series presentation of the Royal family, exaggerating certain characteristics and playing them to perfect comedy value. They persisted to break the fourth wall, calling upon lucky audience members to assist with different scenes from the TV show. There is often a tendency for audience participation to become quite awkward, but luckily that wasn’t the case.

The lighting (Robbie Butler) and sound (James Nicholson) complemented the performance perfectly, as did the simple yet effective costume design (Lee Newby). Although slightly mad, and at times a bit slow between scene transitions, this is a comedy that stands well on its own and will definitely also get you excited for the new series of The Crown.

 

Reviewed by Maddie Stephenson

Photography by Geraint Lewis

 


The Crown Dual

King’s Head Theatre until 7th April

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
La Traviata | ★★★★ | October 2018
No Leaves on my Precious Self | ★★ | October 2018
Beauty and the Beast: A Musical Parody | ★★★★★ | November 2018
Brexit | ★★★★★ | November 2018
Buttons: A Cinderella Story | ★★★★ | November 2018
Momma Golda | ★★★ | November 2018
The Crumple Zone | ★★ | November 2018
Outlying Islands | ★★★★ | January 2019
Carmen | ★★★★ | February 2019
Timpson: The Musical | ★★★ | February 2019

 

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

 

thespyinthestalls King Kong

King Kong

The Vaults

30th June 2017

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

“A madcap comedy escape”

 

The cinematic path to Skull Island and the fabled beast King Kong is a well trodden one since the first film in 1933 up to the recently released Kong: Skull Island starring, amongst others, Tom Hiddleston.

Less trodden is the theatre path but that has changed with the opening of Daniel Clarkson’s engaging comedic re-imagination of the Kong story at the atmospheric Vaults underneath Waterloo Station.

thespyinthestalls King Kong

Clarkson, a self–confessed cinephile, has previous success from his critically acclaimed ‘Potted’ stage shows that included the Olivier nominated Potted Potter. Being a huge fan of the 1933 classic King Kong he wanted to create a spoof comedy version for the stage and his work is now available for all to see.

Keeping close to the original film storyline, filmmaker Carl Denham charters a New York ship for a project but is unable to secure an actress for the female role. After a search he finds penniless Ann and convinces her to join the crew for an adventure of a lifetime. They head for Skull Island.

thespyinthestalls King Kong

There follows a series of adventures that culminate in the capture of Kong, who is brought back to New York to be paraded as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Eventually escaping and climbing the Empire State Building, Kong is shot and falls to his death. Denham says the classic line ‘it wasn’t the airplanes, it was Beauty that killed the Beast’.

Set designer Simon Scullion makes the most of the arched space and has created an adaptable four tier pyramid set that creates a sense of the ship, Skull Island and the Empire State Building. The sound is loud and clear bringing in particular a hidden beast to life. Lighting is basic but effective.

thespyinthestalls King Kong

The five competent actors play various roles and each commands the set throughout the 80 minute show. Various props are brought onto the set and there is a hilarious use of puppetry in the ‘sacrifice’ scene.

Rob Crouch as Denham (looking every part the film director in his linen suit) has a strong voice that leads us through the storyline. Ben Chamberlain plays the wimpy sailor scared of almost everything but provides the love interest with Ann (Alix Dunmore). Sam Donnelly is the archetypal seafaring Skipper and Brendan Murphy is a hilarious Token Guy. The cast obviously enjoyed bringing this comic romp to the stage.

thespyinthestalls King Kong

Fans of King Kong will undoubtedly want to witness this show though it does has a much wider appeal and there was a good cross section of ages in the audience. Whether those younger members quite understood some of the humour is questionable but they would have enjoyed the visual delights on offer.

The show was laugh out loud in places and mildly funny in others. The humour seemed to represent a mixture between pantomime, an end of the pier show, Monty Python and a little bit of Marx Brothers. There was a feeling though that the whole wasn’t greater than the sum of its parts.

thespyinthestalls King Kong

In conclusion this was a well acted and presented show that made for a fun night out and a tonic for those wanting a bit of silliness to brighten their week. It is indeed a bananas production and worth a visit.

 

Photography by Geraint Lewis

 

 

King Kong

is at The Vaults until 27th August

 

 

Click here to see a list of the latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com