THEATRE REVIEW: A Pissedmas Carol - The Leicester Square Theatre, London.

Sh*tfaced Showtime’s ‘A Pissed-mas Carol’ at the Leicester Square Theatre is one of the most chaotic, entertaining, and hilarious shows I have ever seen and the rest of the audience in my viewing (though not large in number) whole-heartedly agreed. The show was essentially Charles Dickens’ classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ but with Sh*tfaced Showtime’s signature twist. If you don’t know, A Christmas Carol is the story of a mean, money-obsessed man called Ebenezer Scrooge. On Christmas Eve, he gets haunted by Christmassy ghosts of past, present, and future who teach him about the values of kindness and generosity and how to be a good person. However, this plot took more of a side role for this version as the main focus of the show was that one of the main actors in the cast was completely drunk.

Overall, the show was very funny throughout with written-in jokes combining well with the drunken antics of last night’s star (Will Seaward) who played multiple parts including Jacob Marley and the ghosts of both Christmasses present and future. He certainly presented the best parts of the show as he bumbled through it, absolutely smashed drunk, and provided entertainment whenever he opened his mouth. He also set up his cast mates perfectly on numerous occasions for witty comebacks, quick quips and smashing one-liners.

Due to one of the cast members being drunk, the need for quick reactions and improvisations is very important to keep the show moving and the audience entertained. Therefore, it must be said that the cast were very impressive with this, particularly Ebenezer Scrooge (James Murfitt), as it is an incredibly difficult task. However, despite this there were a couple of times that this didn’t quite work out and the scene fell apart, but fortunately this only provided further entertainment and opportunities to make us laugh, especially when the showrunner, Charles Dickens (Dan Quirke), opted to intervene to keep it all going.

As well as this, one of the best aspects of the show, as is true for all Sh*tfaced shows, was the audience participation since props were introduced and given to members of the audience at the beginning of each act including some which could be used to signal the showrunner to give the drunk actor more to drink. In addition to this and the obvious boozy entertainment factor, another enjoyable aspect of the show was the festive music choice which combined Christmas carols and Christmas pop songs, adding some amazing harmonies, and adjusting the song’s style and tone to fit the scene, often in funny or poetic ways. In general, the whole cast performed exceptionally well, especially when it came to singing and having to ad-lib and improvise with the show’s drunk actor.

To summarise, Sh*tfaced Showtime’s ‘A Pissed-mas Carol’ was a natural success and made me laugh non-stop for the full 90 minutes. I was thoroughly entertained and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a comical show that’s not too long and gets you in the festive mood.

Reviewer - James Freedman
on - 14.12.21