A delightful watch, with potential to go further
Squires follows Lance, Otto Dari and Fred on their strange and silly adventures, from Lance trying to find the lost lady Phillipa to Dari trying to prove he isn’t a witch, and that gravity is real. Each of the squire’s “quests” are even sillier than the last and watching them each strive towards their goal is great fun to see unfold.
The cast make great use of physicality to define character. From Lance’s (Kavi Noonan) constant bravado to defend the honour of Phillipa and step into action, to Phil/Phillipa (Phoebe Tompkins) awkwardly trying to avoid breaking cover and prove she is definitely 100% a manly man, and Dari's (Alex Thompson) frustrated attempts to explain that dragons aren’t real and magic is nonsense. Whilst there are certainly stand out moments, it does feel that on occasion things don’t go as far as they should, and as a result some jokes, which on reflection are really good, get a bit lost and don’t land properly.
Squires is well worth the watch. Hannah Brecher has written a fun script and the cast are clearly enjoying the silly world it is set in. However with a mix of the typical minor hitches expected from the start of the Fringe and some lost moments where jokes could be pushed further it feels like Squires has a lot more potential than it showed. I am confident that later in the month, once the team has gotten into their Fringe flow, it will be able to push every moment to its most bombastic, and be something you’ll have been glad to have seen.
