The Liar, the Bitch and the Wardrobe
Joshua Bailey
Directed by Sasha Regan
Union Theatre
Star rating: 3.5
A cheekily irreverent, and often funny, spoof on CS Lewis’s 1950 classic, this show more or less lives up to its strapline: “A Very Adult Pantomime”
Two East End mothers decide to send their two boys into evacuation. Once they reach their destination the boys find, of course, a big wardrobe … Thus this talented cast of four embarks on some outrageous doubling which sends itself up as it goes along.
Joe Pieri who plays Eddie, among other roles, is a camp, half-knowing, overgrown schoolboy one minute and an otherworldly Mr Topless (the faun, naturally). James Georgiou as Peter captures boyish innocence coupled with burgeoning knowledge perfectly. And they play off each other pleasingly.
These boys are passionately in love with each other and the explicit sex jokes come thick and fast as the Narnia story (witty burst of Richard Strauss every time the word is mentioned) wends its way. Loosely.
Tom Duern and Katie Ball are even better. Both use their physicality to maximum effect and director Sasha Regan rarely misses a trick. Duern is tall and willowy. Ball is under five feet and they look hilariously incongruous even just standing side by side. Duern, first as the boys’ richly exaggerated Madam-like landlady, and then as the titular Bitch – not quite a panto dame but close – commands the stage. He is good at embarrassing the audience and thinking on his feet too.
Ball has a gift for funny faces and voices. She is wonderful as the deadpan trolley pusher on a train and later as Arselan, the bottom-wiggling lion, who is definitely not Christ-like here, whatever CS Lewis’s intentions might have been. Fortunately The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is out of copyright. Does she, I wonder, deliberately mime playing the violin the wrong way round or did nobody notice?
It isn’t quite a panto despite its claim although many of the elements are in (“Oh yes they are”). And there are some strong songs in a range of styles. Eighty per cent of the shows I’ve seen this season have been heavily dependent on rap so it’s good to see one which does something different, especially the hillbilly number about evacuation.
The Liar, the Bitch and the Wardrobe is an amusing, boundary-pushing romp which celebrates gay-ness. There’s a nice twist at the end too. The whooping, excited audience I saw it with gave the impression they could hardly believe what they were hearing fom the moment the lights went down.
