A JAFFA CAKE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“It’s a very fun, very silly hour of musical comedy that’s super self-aware and makes the most of this”

Following their previous musical hits Timpson: The Musical and RuneSical, Gigglemug Theatre are back, this time with a musical based on one of the nation’s favourite biscuits… sorry, I mean cakes. This musical comedy uses the real-life case of the 1991 tribunal in which HMRC took Jaffa Cakes to court, claiming that they needed to pay VAT as the product is a biscuit, not a cake (which are exempt from this particular tax). It’s actually a pretty interesting court case, which you can read all about online. But if a musical is more your thing, then definitely make sure to catch this one.

Kevin (Sam Cochrane) is a lawyer, having disappointed his parents who wanted him to pursue a career as a musical theatre performer (a running gag in the show). He’s the defence in this case, up against Katherine (Sabrina Messer) as the prosecution. The task is simple: Kevin has to convince the judge (Alex Prescot, also on keys) that the Jaffa is in fact a cake, not a biscuit. On the way, he has to battle with the presence of the evil Tax Man, played by the utterly hilarious Katie Pritchard.

The songs are super upbeat, starting with the fabulous opening where the cast belt out ‘Is it a cake or is it a biscuit?’. The silliness is very much there from the start, as the actors come on wearing brown and orange costumes, on a set that is fully painted in Jaffa-cake branded colours. There’s a really nifty set design from Lauren Jones with three semi-circular set pieces which are used to setup the court and then moved around in one number to create different shapes, with a very clever use in the final scene that I shan’t spoil (although you may be able to guess!).

The lyrics (also by Sam Cochrane) are witty, playful and downright silly, with lines like ‘What if I wind up dead? / What if I crap the bed’ setting the general comic tone of the whole show. The standout song comes from Pritchard, who sings about being the ‘Tax Man’, a deliciously dark and funny villain number with some incredible riffs. The songs are matched with quirky choreography in Ali James’s production which gives a zany cartoonish type quality to the characters that’s a lot of fun to watch.

There’s also a surprising amount of heart in this story. I don’t know if it’s just the fringe-fatigue, but the show gets proper emotional at the end, with the cast singing out ‘If a cake can be a biscuit, you can be anything’. Who would’ve thought a musical about Jaffa Cakes would give me goosebumps? As well as the standout performance from Pritchard, Prescot shows off his multi-talented skills, playing the Judge and other supporting characters to great comic effect, whilst also on keys for most of the show.

It’s a very fun, very silly hour of musical comedy that’s super self-aware and makes the most of this. A great pick for a day at the Edinburgh Fringe.

A JAFFA CAKE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard – Courtyard Two

Reviewed on 17th August 2024

by Joseph Dunitz

Photography by Ben Wilkin

A JAFFA CAKE MUSICAL

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★★★★

“There’s a real active effort to get us involved in the storytelling, and this is brilliantly effective”

Aoibh Johnson’s play, The Daughters of Róisín, explores the history of church and state abuse of women in Ireland who were pregnant out of wedlock in the 20th century. Johnson performs this one-woman show which, despite dealing with a harrowing, deeply upsetting subject matter, manages to also find a real spirit of hope for a better future.

Johnson’s play moves between monologue, storytelling, poetry recital and Irish folk songs. She stands before us, wearing a white dress, using nothing but a wooden chair and a few other minor props throughout the show. The storytelling aspect focuses on a young woman, seventeen years old, who falls pregnant from a man she meets at a dance. Young women weren’t given any education about sex, and they definitely couldn’t ask any questions.

When she speaks of the young girl’s pregnancy, she calls it her ‘sickness’. The girl is locked away at home in a room with only one window, and she mustn’t go too near it in case anyone sees her. Once the baby is born she sings to it ‘Please don’t take him away’, alternating between singing it like a lullaby to the baby which she cradles and turning it out to the audience, as if pleading, begging us to help. There’s a powerful sense of activism which comes with this, as the responsibility to protect becomes a collective one.

Amidst the anger and trauma that the situation creates, there’s also a real passion and loyalty to the land, to Ireland, and this causes a major conflict for Johnson. She sings ‘Her beauty is forlorn / It’s no longer a place that I feel free to roam’ and dreams of a future where all people of Ireland have proper freedom.

Johnson does a very clever thing to avoid the show feeling totally gloomy, by switching between telling us the story and interacting with us directly. She’s not afraid to make a joke, make us laugh, ask a question to someone in the crowd. There’s a real active effort to get us involved in the storytelling, and this is brilliantly effective at making us feel part of the change, and also at including us in the important task of remembering the women who suffered.

The final reveal, which I won’t spoil in this review, gave some extra context to the piece which made it feel particularly emotional. It’s not just a play, but a protest, and one I would encourage you to go and part of.

Tag Archives: Joseph Dunitz

A JAFFA CAKE MUSICAL

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

A JAFFA CAKE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“It’s a very fun, very silly hour of musical comedy that’s super self-aware and makes the most of this”