Alternative theatre doesn’t get more frantic than this irreverent ancestral comedy from Caligula’s Alibi Theatre Company. When rich kids Jonty, Stella and Wilbur Sidcup discover they have spent their family fortune, eldest son Jonty journeys back in time through the family’s history to ask his forefathers to lend him some cash. Confused? You should be.
But there’s more than whiff of pretension in the concept of this physical comedy show, and the three actors here, who multi-role as the Sidcup elders amongst, of all things, fishermen and wild animals, never make it clear where the story is going or what it’s trying to say. There’s an assortment of music, song and wilfully bad dancing, but sadly none of the cast were talented enough to really put on something special and worse, the show is far too disorganised, improvised at moments to the point of recklessness. It had the feel of a free show in a backstreet bar.
Even with all the confusion around, there were laughs: a Les Miserables rip-off ‘One Debt More’ was a hoot, as was the cameo appearance of a bespectacled puppet badger ‘Monty Halibut’ and an apparent theatre critic labels the show childish. There’s energy here, but too untamed for a show that promised more.