REVIEW: HERCULES: MYTHS & MURDER at The hen and Chickens Theatre, Islington 26 Feb – 2 Mar 2024

‘Surreal, confusing and a lot of fun’

New theatre company We’re Gonna Be a Dad bring a certain zaniness to their story about detectives, with their parody show Hercules: Myths & Murder. No case is too tough for the detective, who has Herculean strength.  The result is a show that has a similar treatment to The Play That Goes Wrong, but it doesn’t have the same precision. 

Written and directed by Xavier Newton Fawcett, there’s plenty of potential here, with fun word play and loads of frenetic action, but the show would benefit from more development.    It’s a little surreal, but unfortunately the result isn’t a super awareness, or super truth, but rather just a little confusing. That’s fine, and the young audience clearly found it a lot of fun.   

The premise, of ambitious police officers and inspectors fighting their way to the top and calling in a detective to help them solve a case, is promising.  However, the storyline involving a bomb attack in an effort to kill off other candidates for higher posts, doesn’t entirely work. Whilst it is ridiculous (which suits the style of play), surely something heavier and more ominous is needed for the mighty Hercules: Myths & Murder to really impress.   There was a nice reveal towards the end involving two old playmates and perhaps this is something to be explored a little more.  There’s also a promising subplot involving PC Peggy Hastings (Sophia Holmes) being overlooked for promotion and being side-lined merely because she’s a woman. This really drew the audience in as a contemporary theme. It was the first successful moment of getting the audience invested in a character.

Well-known fictional detectives also turned up in the parody, a special mention here to Ed Ramsey playing Holmes. The spectre of the great detective was summoned up visually and with the help of some well-chosen lines. The other detectives needed more stage time to fill out their characterisation. Also, a pity to note that one or two props broke apart and if intentional could be very funny, but it really looked to be accidental (there must be a better way of fixing that dog collar).

The few songs in the piece added entertainment value, and three of the cast had great rapport, Charlie Sharp, Sophia Homes and Jack Dalton.   At times they really did seem to have the potential to be a tight ensemble. Having Ed Ramsey’s characters as the outsiders could work well, if more could be made of this trait.

Generally, the piece could benefit from more clarity, bigger stakes and more time to devote to characterisations. Promising work from this new company who are brave enough to try out something new and raise a bit of laughter. They certainly have talent, and it feels as though something original is breaking through, but we’re not quite sure what it is yet. It’s going to be interesting to see where they go from here.

HERCULES POIROT at The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Islington 26 Feb – 2 Mar 2024

Box Office  ENDED

Presented by We're Gonna Be a Dad

Reviewed by Heather Jeffery, Editor of LPTM