King Arthur at Lighthouse Poole Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mel S-W

In this comedic adaptation of King Arthur …. You don’t know what to expect. Flying latex fruit, launched French fancies and a giggle a minute. Written in collaboration with John Nicholson who is known to be one of theatre’s best comedy writers and directors, with the funny comedy trio of Le Navet Bête.

Le Navet Bete (which they assured me after the show was a very loose and somewhat bad translation of The Stupid/daft Turnip) are made up of 3 extremely funny men who had me in hysterics for the whole time! Their quick humour, hilarious facial expressions, good/bad accents and slapstick comedy that draws on their childhood love of comedy from the likes of Monty Python and Bottom. The troop are based in Exeter so local to the south coast. You can tell that this band of men have been together for many years, there’s a closeness in their acting and a huge amount of trust on the stage. Jokes landed so well, innuendos were hilarious, costume changes and quick reactions when things go wrong and the best bits, where the cast are on the brink of a giggling fit!

The staging was on show as we entered the theatre and we were greeted with music and a huge castle. Three sets of stocks graced the stage, occasionally becoming shrouded in fog. A lady dressed in period clothing was walking around handing out vegetables (of the latex variety) which caused a ripple of laughter as the audience knew what would happen shortly. It was quite funny coming into the main foyer minutes before to be met with a sign warning of the possibility of flying latex vegetables.

The show follows three squires, Edgar (Al Dunn), Osberth (Nick Bunt) and Dave (Matt Freeman) who, after a night drinking with King Arthur, has signed them up to create a show. But all is chaotic, they lose hours and days in their quest to produce their show. The first half follows their haphazard attempts to plan their theatrical show and the second part was the actual show that they were performing for King Arthur and the whole of Camelot. The show was just as nuts as the first half, and went through all the legends of Camelot. After the show, we were lucky enough to have a question and answer session with the cast and crew. They said that they chose Camelot because the history and legends were crazy so they wanted to take advantage of this.

I enjoyed this show so much that I’m gutted we have plans tomorrow as I would love to have returned to see the show again with my wife and little boy, it was the perfect Friday night giggle. The three squires played multiple characters, moved around the stage like they were on fast forward, we’re off stage and then back on stage as a different character. I was crying with laughter at points, especially within the first five minutes when the squires were secured in the stocks and they wanted to break free. The theatre may have been a bit on the emptier side tonight but boy did we roar with laughter. The speed that the guys moved around the stage, the quick changes from one character to another. And oh la la …. I forgot about the French accent -think about the policeman from Allo Allo!.

There is so much comedy, so many absolutely gold bits that I want to include but I don’t want to spoil the surprises. They, Le Navet Bête, said that no two shows are the same but expect this … comedy, comedy, comedy and a bit of silliness and loads of laughter. Just brilliant. Thank you all, definitely going to keep my eye out for more shows from Le Navet Bête at the Lighthouse.

The show is 2 hours 15 minutes including the interval.
The Lighthouse is a great venue for all types of shows. Tonight’s show was in the Theatre which is a great size space but not overly large and overwhelming like some theatres can be. We were in row E and had a great view.

Rating: 5/5 – I want to go back tomorrow
Tickets for the show started from £19.50
The show has two more shows on Saturday 19th October.
You can purchase tickets here www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

The full address is Lighthouse, Arts and Entertainment, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG