With a reputation for garnering stars and fans during the Edinburgh Fringe, North London based Flabbergast Theatre returns to Scotland’s Capital this December with Boris & Sergey’s Christmas Cabaret, their unique take on Dickens’ classic seasonal tale, A Christmas Carol.
The basic parts of the Dickens’ story are told, or partly told, through the sibling rivalry of two small leather made puppets called Boris and Sergey, the latter who sees the world of 1880 and the former that of 1980. Will there be a clash? You bet! And no holds barred. Spoiler alert – no puppets were harmed in the fight!
Between the scenes involving the odd wee leather brothers, the ensemble perform beautifully sung familiar and not so familiar carols with a bit of dancing thrown in from this troupe whose thinly concealed anarchy is bursting to be released from its semi respectable behatted cover like a load of impatient imps. The show is cheeky, inventive and self-referential throughout in its general wackiness and wickedness. Like all good clowns, they may look buffoonish, but they are masters of their craft and none more so than, in the words of a puppeteer, the “totally ripped” Sasha Krohn who spookily appears as Marley in chains but goes on to stun with a graceful and elegant performance on aerial straps.
The Roxy Theatre, with its high arches creating shadows across its old stone floors, has its own built in atmosphere that can be a real bonus to particular shows. However, the high pillared airy space that so well accommodates the cast dressed like ripe candidates for Fagin’s den (different Dickens but …), to get right in among the audience pre performance, somewhat overwhelms the scenes involving their fine puppetry. Only when the lights go down and spotlights illuminate the puppetry area are the excellent puppetry skills of this multi-talented ensemble, comprising Dale Wylde (Boris head and voice), Elliot Pritchard (Boris body), Lottie Grogan (Boris feet), Simon Gleave (Sergey head and voice), Vyte Garriga (Sergey body) and last but by no means least, Lennie Longworth (Sergey feet), seen at their best.
Although the show is a bit uneven and would have benefitted from a shorter running time with the rather protracted spoof quiz show being cut down, it still cleverly manages to sneak in the Christmas message among the subversion.
Flabbergast is steeped in physical theatre styles and influenced by the likes of Butoh, Grotowski, Lecoq and Mask, making their show a great Christmas gift for fans of quality clowning and puppetry. All this, with real humbugs thrown in, is flabbergasting indeed!
Roxy Theatre, Central, 2 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9SU.
12th-21st Dec | 19:30 | Running Time 2 hours
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 