REVIEW: THE FROGS at Kiln Theatre 12 February – 2 March 2024

'more is more when it’s done with this much tongue-in-cheek glee' ★★★★ ½

Over 2400 years ago, Greek playwright Aristophanes wanted to take the piss out of his colleagues, so he wrote The Frogs—a comedy about a half-god and a man travelling to the underworld to bring back the greatest writer of all time, while making as many sex gags as possible along the way.

An ancient comedy about literary in-jokes, what could possibly go wrong? Spymonkey has made that the driving question of its adaptation, and the result is an existential crisis of theatrical chaos in 2-act form.

If we had a star category based solely on inventiveness, I would beg my editor to let me break the system—five stars doesn’t cover it. The costumes and props alone are a delight to watch in action, and mesh perfectly with the performers’ comedy stylings: Gigantic children’s slinky tunnels, turned into instruments of insectoid torture. The most sexually explicit Hercules (excuse me, Herakles) costume I’ve ever seen that still, technically, covers every inch of skin. Balloon heads, hippie puppets, neon ponchos, the combined use of a revolve and a fragile boat that threatens to break half the health-and-safety rules by itself—more is more when it’s done with this much tongue-in-cheek glee.

All three performers are excellent, throwing themselves into their widely divergent energies and tropes. Toby Park is usually Dionysus, god of wine, and Aitor Basauri is usually Xanthius, his side-kick and slave, apart from when they’re a chorus of frogs, or—increasingly as the show goes on—Toby and Aitor, put-upon performers, having a breakdown. Jacoba Williams tackles most of the rest (ferry(wo)man, Pluto, hero, doorkeeper, monster of the underworld and more) because, as she tells the men, The Frogs is the oldest double act in history, really: What better play to revamp the waning fortunes of the two remaining members of the Spymonkey company? There used to be four, now there are two, because, well, Petra left and Stephan died.

This is true, by the way. The Frogs may be the first comedy I’ve seen whose actors build a shrine to their deceased colleague and cry out to the god of the underworld to bring him back. A tonal risk that could go hideously wrong, but they seem to pull it off (mostly by giving the audience the sneaking suspicion that this is exactly what Stephan would have wanted). Other claims about the production process are less reality-bound—the listed writer is Carl Grose (of Kneehigh), despite Jacoba Williams’s on-stage claims—so unless you’re a Spymonkey super fan, you’ll spend most of the show guessing how much is accurate and how much is bullshitted for the sake of Aristophanes’ themes. For Park and Basauri’s wellbeing, let’s hope the existential crises fall mostly into the latter category.

All this is to say: If you want to go to the theatre and forget you’re watching a show, losing yourself in the immersion, this is not for you. The Frogs doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as treat battering it to smithereens as the evening’s prime goal. But this is, and always has been, a play about playwriting, so the theatrical deconstruction is entirely on theme. It also allows Grose and Spymonkey to skip or comment on the boring bits— one performer silently monologues on a revolve, another refuses to play the ending because it’s shite.

So for anyone who can stomach theatre people talking about theatre, grab a drink and strap in: This one’s a ride.

Images: Manual Harlan

Spymonkey, Kiln Theatre and Royal & Derngate present

THE FROGS

At Kiln Theatre, Kilburn 12 February - 2 March 2024

Book here https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/the-frogs/

ACCESS PERFORMANCES

BSL Integrated Performance: 15 Feb, 7.30pm

Captioned Performance: 22 Feb, 7.30pm

Touch Tour: 29 Feb, 6pm

Audio Described Performance: 29 Feb, 7.30pm

Cast

Aitor Basauri

Toby Park

Jacoba Williams

Creative Team

Director: Joyce Henderson

Writer: Carl Grose

Set and Costume Designer: Lucy Bradridge

Composer: Toby Park

Lighting Designer: Amy Mae

Sound Designer. Beth Duke

Spymonkey Executive Producer: Emily Coleman

BSL Interpreter: Becky Barry

BSL Consultant: Deepa Shastri

EDI Creative Consultant: Sharon White

Choreographer: Simone Murphy

Community Engagement Facilitator: Helen Clifford

Stage Manager: Katie Bosomworth

Assistant Stage Manager: Valeriya Voronkina

Lighting Operator: Bill Traore

Production Carpenter: Calum Walker

Production Electrician: Paul Salmon

Production Sound Engineer: Jack Lord

Lighting Programmer: Megan Lucas

Rigger: James “Luka” Goodsall

Reviewed by Anna Clart