5 – 7 June

It was the worst of plays; it was the best of plays. Implausible and impossible, it tickles and stretches credulity into a new world of unabashed and delightful silliness; including re-winds, passing tankers and warships, prankster pirates, guns, feathers, sharks, backstage interruptions and liberal opium consumption.

It took me a few minutes to work out what was going on, theatrically so to speak, after which the smile never left my face except to laugh out loud. Brimming with life-giving naivety and a total disregard for what should work and what doesn’t and all delivered with bubbling self-belief, the play defies any conventional label.

An over-emotional Wordsworth (Toby Allen-Smith) and an intermittently stoned and languid, Coleridge (Joe Makarov, ‘Always away with the bloody muses’) relate their journey in a rubber dinghy across the North Sea to Germany, where Coleridge was hoping to meet some large-breasted frauleins. Wordsworth is constantly trying to be the adult in the dingy whilst Coleridge is the wayward offspring of the Romantic movement.

Notionally an untold story of an unknown adventure of 1796, time and context are mere labels. Containing one of the best raps you are likely to hear, certainly one of the wittiest this year and a few filthy limericks, courtesy of Coleridge, the two poets spend their time constantly bickering and engaged in intellectual fisticuffs (‘You’re not a bogging poet!’ – Wordsworth of Coleridge).   ‘The Stagehand’ (Joanne Wiley) also appears as bartender, albatross, shark, raging storm and pirate Chucklebucket, all with smack-in-the-face commitment.

The show is directed by Ross Brown who along with the members of the cast developed the script during rehearsals. Final responsibility for the script was given to Joe Makarov. It would be difficult to summarise the story as so much happens to the two unlikely mariners. Indeed so rich in incident is the piece during its 60 minutes that I wouldn’t have been surprised had Tennyson bobbed out of the water and pointed the way to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. Eschewing the weaknesses of ensemble writing the piece plays to its strengths in taking off continually in unexpected directions.

The show is headed for Edinburgh next year where I fully expect it to gain plaudits and golden opinions.

Tripping over itself with impossible invention it is a surrealist treat of a play.

★★★★☆     Graham Wyles    6 June 2024