Watching The Suitcase Royale was a special experience. I’m not convinced I have the words to describe it. Instead I’m going to mention out of context some of things that were included in this show: a giant zombie wombat obsessed with creating a spa; a bazooka that shoots crumpets; a puppet zombie wombat that beats up its cricket instructor with a bat; an emergency banjo; and an entrance to an evil lair situated between a bearded woman’s legs. A show that contains all of these things simply can not be bad. Put these alongside a few musical numbers to break up the action and you have yourself a show.As you may have guessed, The Suitcase Royale are mental, but this is no bad thing. The show follows the fate of The Blue Lagoon Caravan Park, a site that has been overrun by evil zombats. If you hadn’t guessed already, zombats are half-wombat, half-zombie and all evil. The two remaining residents Mayor Grogan and his brother, cricketing legend Darren Grogan, have to lead the fight back and stay alive with the help of a mysterious stranger only known as the stranger.The characters created here are insane, but the performers take them on hilariously with almost Mighty Boosh confidence. The set also deserves a particular mention as it is the one of the most complicated that I have ever seen for a comedy show. Every piece of set is ragtag, looks brilliant and is used to create the variety of locations in the show. The set and tech, although impressive, had many issues. Things kept falling over or apart and various sound cues were missed which resulted in a long discussion with the tech box. Not that you could tell if something had actually gone wrong. The performers were so confident that every mistake seemed like part of the act. At one point a light fell off the rig. I genuinely want someone to tell me if that happens every night because the reaction was absolutely brilliant. This is the kind of stream of consciousness that only shows up after too much cheese before bed. It’s odd but strangely satisfying.
