SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★

“The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor”

It is a bold statement to tag your show with the subtitle ‘A Musical Reinvented’. But there is nothing faint-hearted about Bradley Bredeweg’s reinterpretation of Tim Burton’s classic and gothic fairytale. Direct from Los Angeles, it bursts onto the London stage as though heading for Wembley Arena, but instead took a wrong turn and landed up in the three-hundred-seater, Southwark venue. Edward Scissorhands, the solemn and doleful outsider, has morphed into a rock legend of their own making – if only for a few fleeting seconds before retreating behind the bank of loudspeakers to await rediscovery.

The tale of an outsider trying to ‘fit in’ is an obvious celebration of being different; yet it is hard to maintain the impact of this message when the whole ensemble are complete weirdos anyway. A delightful bunch, nonetheless. Jordan Kai Burnett’s Scissorhands is slightly pushed into the shadows as a result, eclipsed by the eccentrics that surround them. Emma Williams, as Avon Lady Peg who adopts the waif-like Scissorhands, also adopts the role of protagonist with her wonderfully kooky, mad-as-a-hatter portrayal of the American housewife. Neighbours Joyce (Tricia Adele-Turner), Esmerelda (Annabelle Terry) and Helen (Ryan O’Connor) are as maverick and flamboyant as Abby Clarke’s primary-coloured costume design; while Dionne Gipson’s striking, ethereal ‘Inventor’ holds court from on high.

We are never completely emotionally engaged, but are always sucked into the sheer energy and sense of fun with which the performers are swamping the stage. And even if the song list gratuitously breaks the continuity of the story, the numbers are delivered with a powerful virtuosity. Like many juke-box musicals, the choice is hit and miss – some forming a neat and natural segue from the dialogue, whereas others are as isolated from the plot as Scissorhands is from reality. But, boy, there are some belters in there! Annabelle Terry’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ is a standout moment, along with Tricia Adele-Turner’s ‘Bleeding Love’ and Dionne Gipson’s ‘Mad World’. Emma Williams majestically reinvents ‘Creep’ (even though we really feel the song belongs to Scissorhands), and throughout the show, the wall of sound created by musical director Arlene McNaught’s five-piece band threaten to bring the roof down.

It is quite the spectacle, but the nuances of Burton’s original are lost in the mix, just as the quirkiness is occasionally obscured by an earnestness that is shoe-horned in. Rather than reinvented, the musical is relabelled – somewhat superficially like a ‘new-and-improved’, ‘special-offer’ packaging. Overtly establishing in a throwaway line of dialogue the correct pronoun for the lead character merely scratches the surface of the essential issue, while we either want it to dig deeper, or else take it as a given (as it should be).

There is a fair amount of disarray, but we cannot mistake the sheer joyfulness of it. The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor. The audience feel part of it all, especially when the fourth wall breaks down and boundaries are overstepped. Improvised ad-libs are let loose, often as sharp as the blades of Scissorhands’ make-shift fingers.

“Scissorhandz” is a fun-loving, camp, boisterous show bursting to crash through the walls of its chosen venue. But like Scissorhands themself, is a bit of a chimera – not quite fully formed. Yet there is something special in there, and it is an extraordinary piece of musical theatre. Its message implores us to seek that ‘special something’ within ourselves. Applied to itself, this show could well be onto a winning path to completion.

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 30th January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

CANNED GOODS | ★★★ | January 2025

THE MASSIVE TRAGEDY OF MADAME BOVARY | ★★★ | December 2024

THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH | ★★★★★ | November 2024

[TITLE OF SHOW] | ★★★ | November 2024

THE UNGODLY | ★★★ | October 2024

FOREVERLAND | ★★★★ | October 2024

JULIUS CAESAR | ★★★ | September 2024

DORIAN: THE MUSICAL | ★★½ | July 2024

THE BLEEDING TREE | ★★★★ | June 2024

FUN AT THE BEACH ROMP-BOMP-A-LOMP!! | ★★★ | May 2024

MAY 35th | ★★★½ | May 2024

SAPPHO | ★★ | May 2024

SCISSORHANDZ

★★★½

“an important and extremely moving piece of theatre”

Next month marks 35 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. In an act of memoriam and collective consciousness raising, Stage June Fourth, with support from Arts Council England and Amnesty International, are producing the first English language adaptation of a play inspired by witness testimony.

May 35th tells the story of an elderly couple whose son, Ah Ping, was killed in Tiananmen Square. May 35th is the codename for the event, as still, references to June 4 are censored on Chinese social media. Decades later, as they both face their own mortality, their dying wish is to hold a ritual for him in the place he was murdered.

Written by Candace Chong Mui Ngam, a Chinese playwright from Hong Kong, it is based on interviews and real-life stories of parents whose children were killed in the massacre. In the week that 14 pro-democracy activists were found guilty under Hong Kong’s new national security laws, imposed by Beijing, it is a timely reminder of the ramifications of Tiananmen into the present day.

Set solely in parents Siu Lum and Ah Dai’s small apartment, design by Hong Kong-style Pineapple Bun with Butter had a fitting mix of crumbling upper walls and more brightly painted lower thirds that got across both the horrors and more touching moments the apartment had seen over their lifetime. Almost imperceptible transformations at scene changes, such as additions of layers of knitwear, and the appearance and disappearance of a poster to Chairman Mao, demonstrate the passing of time and delineate between contemporary scenes and flashbacks.

Despite the frailty of the couple, they both brim with deep set anger over the senseless, evil violence done to him and all the victims of the massacre. In a particularly memorable scene, Siu Lum is tied to chair by Ah Dai, who is trying to stop her from rashly reacting to her son’s death. The power of her words and delivery, speaking about her anguish over her son’s death, not knowing what had happened to him, not being able to see his body and grieve his death, it utterly transfixing.

Contrasted with this is her husband, whose reticence to act for fear of repercussions from the CCP is a source of tension. But as we witness the couple in their heart-breaking final days, and wonder whether Siu Lum will make it to see her wish of lighting a candle for her son in the square, any doubts about Ah Dai’s devotion are redeemed.

May 35th is no doubt an important and extremely moving piece of theatre telling the story of the massacre. As emphasised by the CEO of Amnesty International and Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of Human Rights in China and President of Humanitarian China in an aftershow talk, shows like this can help support global activism and international support for Human Rights, truth and justice in China today.

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★

“The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor”

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 30th January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

SCISSORHANDZ

SCISSORHANDZ

SCISSORHANDZ

MAY 35TH at Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★½

“an important and extremely moving piece of theatre”

MAY 35TH at Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 30th May 2024

by Amber Woodward

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

MAY 35th

MAY 35th