8 – 11 June
David Walliams connects with his inner child again for this little homily on the theme of money and friendship. The story is aimed squarely at a younger audience and before the lights went up there were lots of excited and happy voices – what we might call, ‘theatre gold’, waiting to be mined.
There’s all the silliness that a 6 – 12 year old could want, with sanitized helpings of the kind of juvenile, scatological fun you might expect from a play whose hero is heir to the, ‘Bum Fresh’, loo-roll fortune. Squeals of mirth attested that Mr Walliams knows his audience.
Although he lives in the biggest house that money can buy, Dad (Matthew Mellalieu) remains emotionally semi-detached from his son, Joe (Matthew Gordon) who craves the things that money can’t buy: friendship and love. The story sets about telling us why it’s not a good idea to even try.
After a spell at a posh private school where Joe is looked down upon because of the source of his father’s wealth, he convinces his dad to let him go to the local comp where, with his wealth being his little secret, he’s looked down upon for not being cool. Nevertheless he does soon make a genuine friend in Bob (Jake Lomas) who’s equally un-cool and non-sporty. Following his dad’s creed of money solving everything he offers his new pal money as a reward. Bob however is made of finer stuff and gets offended. Meanwhile Dad, who is busy chasing a gold digging WAG (Rosie Coles), manages to blow his son’s cover with an overt display of wealth. Then, with the kind of insensitive plan that only a well meaning, but emotional numbskull could devise, he hires an actor (Matthew Chase) to become his son’s friend. It’s all going horribly wrong until the loss of his dad’s wealth paradoxically opens eyes and hearts to what really matters.
With a target demographic in mind the play’s lack of subtlety is no bad thing. The characters are all broadly drawn and the discourse on human nature is clear and well made. Schooldays come in for a bit of a pop with some familiar tropes. The school bullies are cartoonish and there is a special place in gourmet hell reserved for the deliciously awful dinner lady, Mrs Trafe (Emma Matthews) whose offerings include; badger and onion pie and slug and toad trifle.
Some bright song and dance numbers help to drive home the message and the loo roll set adds to the sense of fun. The mic’d voices were a bit of an issue with me as they tended to take out some of the quality of the individual characters and reduced one or two of the songs to a tinny mush.
It’s a fun family show with a quirkiness that hits the right mark with its intended audience.
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 9th June 2022
Photo credit: Mark Douet
