10 – 11 July
The title is a direct quotation from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, a novel that for thirty years Andrew Brooke taught to GCSE students, along with Macbeth and A Christmas Carol. As he points out, whatever literary merits those three texts might possess, their great virtue for a teacher faced with a class of less than wildly enthusiastic kids, is that they are all short. I too taught Eng Lit for many decades, and I know what he means – last lesson, a Friday afternoon, a restless class eager for the weekend and a teacher attempting to generate interest in a 900-page tome such as Bleak House is a dire situation. Having retired from teaching, Brooke has turned to comedy, and this one-man show is the result of that courageous transformation.
The publicity for Glove Fulla Vaseline promises a ‘painfully recognisable look at the realities of life in the classroom.’ Is that what we get? Eventually we do, but Mr Brooke cannot resist digressing from his stated theme. He is still a pedagogue at heart, and so his show features a brief history lesson on how Vaseline came to be invented, a potted biography of Steinbeck, and an account of the surprising results one can get if AI is used to identify people most similar to yourself. All this and more is delivered in an engagingly light-hearted fashion, but I would have liked more about his experiences in the classroom.
For those in the audience unfamiliar with Of Mice And Men there is a handout giving a plot summary, and much of Glove Fulla Vaseline features comic songs that depict key episodes. These musical interludes are the most inventive and original parts of the show, with Brooke skilfully using pre-recorded backing tracks in a variety of styles while accompanying himself on guitar. Riot In The Bunkhouse is a spot-on piece of pastiche punk, but last night’s highlight was surely when a cheerfully compliant member of the audience mimed energetically on keyboards in a delicious parody of synth pop.
Near the very end of the show Brooke finally takes us back to the classroom. Of Mice And Men can lay traps for an unwary inexperienced teacher, not least in the section featuring that greasy glove. We discover what happens when an annoyingly persistent pupil asks just why Curley, the villain of Of Mice And Men, wears ‘a glove fulla Vaseline.’ Cue an excruciatingly embarrassed teacher.
Glove Fulla Vaseline is a technically adroit show featuring clever songs and some good jokes, though not all the humour hits the target and structurally it is all rather wayward. Despite the explanatory handout, I suspect that anyone unfamiliar with Of Mice And Men might still find much of it a little baffling, but Andrew Brooke deserves admiration for having bravely stepped out of the classroom and onto the stage.
★★★☆☆. Mike Whitton, 11 July 2026
Photography credits: Ian McGinn, Catrin Brooke
