REVIEW: MACPLEBS by Gherto Tanzarella & Tom Hogan At Golden Goose Theatre 30 & 31 May 2024

‘a tale told by TWO idiots, full of sound and fury’ ★★★

It’s that time of year when shows in rehearsal for an Edinburgh Fringe run come briefly to London town, and MacPlebs is a good-natured, oven-ready whisk through MacBeth via song, dance, rapid costume change and perhaps a joke or two too few.

It’s also a tale told by two idiots, full of sound and fury – the set-up is that the full cast of the play have been massacred on their way to the theatre in a transport accident, leaving just the two actors who were playing Messenger 1 and Messenger 2 to ensure that the show must go on.

Naturally, being actors, they’ve read no more of the play than their own (very few) lines, and the ensuing 50 minutes of larkily making it up as they go along should do well at Edinburgh if the two performer-writers crack the challenge of winning an early audience and good word of mouth.

It’s also a lot more carefully constructed than that may have sounded, whisking merrily and speedily through the principal events of the play (witches, prophecy, Lady M-inspired murder of Duncan, despatch of Banquo and the young MacDuffs, emotional collapse of both M and Lady M, and final battle against Birnham Wood and the untimely-ripped mad MacDuff himself).

Falling somewhere between the Play That Goes Wrong and what the Reduced Shakespeare Company used to do, it involves much changing of hats as the two men frantically play a cast of a dozen or more, and a lot of silliness (five-year-old Fleance and a madly cheerful old Duncan looking forward to years and years and years and years of Kingship before the dagger strikes him are particularly funny).

Song, dance, mugging and some frantic racing around the stage, all very much for those who (like me) like that sort of thing, but this is also done with a lot of energy, performer skill and, especially, sheer charm.

The script is perhaps a little scatterdash and there’s room for a bit more wit amid the brevity (the report of Lady M’s early demise is a high spot on both those scores), a bit more wordplay, and even, as in Morgan’s one extended soliloquy (the bit about the dagger being before you), a bit more Shakespeare (though very definitely not too much of him).

A palpable hit, then, and best of luck to them with the accents when there’s more than just one Scot sat in the audience.

Box Office for Edinburgh fringe run  https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/macplebs

Twitter: https://x.com/TheRaymondos   

Reviewer: David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.