Gigglemug Comedy Theatre troupe take us back to Victorian London, to recount the beginnings of the shoe-repairers-cum-locksmith high street chain of Timpsons. However, when their tongue is very firmly in their cheek at all times, one can be assured that the historical accuracy of this account is, well, a load of old cobblers!
Filmed live from the stage of London's Stockwell Playhouse, this musical is very much a chamber musical, utilising only7 performers (some of whom are adept at multi-rolling even within the same sentence!), and a small, but perfectly adequate set of two quasi-Victorian carts and a few boxes. Ideal for touring and for festivals, as indeed this Musical gained much critical acclaim both in London and at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The show starts as a parody of Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet, as we see two feuding households (both alike in dignity); one of them The Montashoes are shoemakers, whilst the other, The Keypulets, are makers of keys - sorry, no, they are makers of miniture saws! (which will eventually be able to open the locks which they also invent!). Monty, Lady Montashoe's errant son, and Keeleigh, Lord Keypulet's daughter, both take a trip with their latest inventions to the "Invention Convention", and of course they become, as soon as their eyes meet each others, a pair of star-cross'd lovers! However, Shakespeare this most certainly isn't. This is fast-moving, quick thinking, non-stop amiable nonsense. This is Pantomime meets Showstoppers! meets Whose Line Is It Anyway.
The characterisations rely on stcok caricatures and are monodimensional but fun - you really are not meant to take any of this seriously! - It's all very whacky, but has very high production values. The quality of both the singing and dancing was much more proficient than I had expected from watching the first 10 minutes or so. The music, written by Tom Slade and Theo Caplan, is also a lot more mature than the average 'off-Broadway review-style comedisical'. To be honest, much of what I witnessed in this regard, would be much better served in a full-length mainstream production.
In Timpson, it is the comedy which will either pull you in and have you holding your sides in from over-guffawing, or will irritate you no end and the more you watch the more you'll want to punch everyone on stage. Let's call it a 'Marmite' Musical! The corny jokes, both physical and verbal, just keep on coming in rapid-fire succession, and so you need a quick brain and a wide, open sense of humour to be able to 'get' it all and process it. I feel sure I must have missed a lot, and perhaps it will take several vieiwngs before I am able to find, understand and laugh at every joke. The overriding problem therefore with this script, (Sam Cochrane and Chris Baker) is just that. The jokes take precedence over story, character, pretty much everything. And this can get very wearisome at times. Yes, a lot of what is performed is very metatheatrical, even ustilising audience participation, and the songs do tend to be used well to split up the more mad-cap moments. But perhpas the company is just trying too hard, trying to break a world record, to see how many jokes they can fit into an 80 minute show.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 12/5/20
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