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Theatre review - Carpe Jugulum, Unseen Theatre Company
TERI LOUISE KELLY
17/07/2008 12:49:00 PM

Tony Robinson stalks me. Is there nothing that man won't voiceover? This was how Unseen Theatre Company’s latest adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel began. Obviously, Pratchett pulls a crowd. To see the quaint Bakehouse (my favourite theatre), jam-packed right to the ceiling cabling on a cold Wednesday night is testimony to Pratchett's allure.
The “expert” in the swivel chair (Bek Rimington) doing the narration was a nice J.K. Rowling-esque touch that I for one appreciated, knowing nada about Pratchett or his seemingly endless Discworld series (something I believe that involves a world balanced on the back of a giant turtle). As director Pamela Munt points out in her program note, perhaps the allure of a fantasyland has its essence in the fact that no heed need be paid to our world, with its crazy headlong sprint toward full political correctness. Ergo, the cranky witches with chocolate addictions and nouveau vamps of Cape Jugulum.
Fantasy or not, the nut of the play is still the good (witches) of Lancre against the baddish (vamps) of Magpyrs. Our loveable vamps just turn up and take over the idyllic kingdom of somewhere far far away with their sauve style, mind powers and non-plussed attitude toward old vampiric (killing) lore. Even in a fantasy world, you still need the earthly tale of good versus evil. And, so it goes – with Igor the team-switching butler (deftly portrayed by Philip Lineton), and a rather formulaic ensemble of traditional characters with quaintly-English circa Carry On handles like the Mightily Reverend Oats and Vlad and Agnes Nitt.
While Unseen Theatre has produced a thorough, and, I presume, authentic production, I found the visual gags and the Hammer Horror meets Rocky Horror skits more than a trifle jaded and predictable. Then again, I did grow up in the country that birthed this kind of jokebag humour so maybe I'd just seen and heard them all too many times before, delivered by the likes of Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Conner et al. That probably shouldn't detract from what is obviously a drawcard production, delivered by a professional company to a willing audience. In the end, for me – it was a toss-up between Granny Turtlewax and the slinky Perdita (the (th)inner girl). And of course in all the worlds in all the galaxies the good guys eventually prevail – don't they?
Cape Jugulum finishes its sold out run on Saturday. Take a lemon if vampires scare you. Bakehouse Theatre.