STRING V SPITTA at the Soho Theatre

★★★★

“The rivalry, which fires the first half hour, is heated and hilarious”

Let’s start with a question. If you wanted to find yourself in a room full of adults (a loose term), singing the nursery rhyme, “Incy Wincy Spider”, accompanied by a human beatbox on a loop-pedal – where would you go? Okay – even if the question has never entered your mind before, it should now!

Let me put that in context. We are at the sixth birthday party of Anastasia, a Russian oligarch’s daughter (in reality we are in the basement of the Soho Theatre, but I don’t want to spoil the illusion), for which the entertainment is being supplied by a rather odd couple: the highly-strung, silver-spooned Sylvester String (Ed MacArthur) and the TikTok-rapper-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks MC SPITTA (Kiell Smith-Bynoe). Once the reigning king of the lucrative West London children’s party circuit, String’s crown is being usurped by SPITTA, whose grittier, grimier act is gaining favour with the Gen Alpha kids.

The rivalry, which fires the first half hour, is heated and hilarious. How on earth did these two get to work together? Cue prefatory flashback. As the duo duel in song and semi-improvised banter, their diverging paths shift towards each other and they reluctantly agree to collaborate and put on this party together. They pool their respective skills and throw their differing backgrounds into the magician’s hat, pulling out a constant stream of laugh-out-loud absurdity. The show inevitably milks the subject of class and the socio-economic chasm between the two characters, but it is dished out with such relish that after an hour we don’t want this party to end.

The sheer entertainment value screens us to the fact that the plot has been left behind at the school gate. What follows are all the trappings and paraphernalia of a kids’ party, complete with magic, song, audience participation and overall downright silliness. But with an offbeat irreverence that, had the audience actually comprised a bunch of six-year-olds, the duo would be out of work long ago – if not behind bars.

The opening number details their back stories, while subsequent songs and surreal fun and games peel back further layers. We learn how String underhandedly gate-crashed SPITTA’s gigs in disguise to wheedle himself into his schedule. We learn, too, of SPITTA’s dubious means to steal String’s gigs in the first place. The pair are constantly sending themselves up as much as each other. Topical references are thrown in between the obviously more established but outrageous one-liners. It is politically incorrect and also politically acute. But beneath the ramshackle humour, the skill and talent of MacArthur and Smith-Bynoe are clearly visible. And the fun they are having is clearer still. And even clearer still… is the fun the audience are having.

SPITTA started off stealing String’s shows, String tries to steal it back. But in the end, they both end up stealing this show. It’s a party not to be missed.