JADAR

★★★★☆

Le Navet Bete’s production of King Arthur is one of the most whimsial and childishly comedic shows I’ve seen to date. Its mixture of exaggerated physicality, absurd characters, and the charming relationship between the three leads in this multi-role play is astonishingly well crafted. The show mixes elements of slapstick, farce, pantomime, audience participation, and a handful of dad puns (I am still groaning at “egg-scalibur”) – elements that leave you constantly guessing their next moves.

We follow the initially drunken trio (Nick Bunt, Al Dunn and Matt Freeman) as they try to undo the mess they created on their night on the town with King Arthur, where they accidentally promised a rather naïve and less daring Arthur that they’d create a show illustrating the greatness of Camelot.

Arthurian legends don’t do justice to the wacky cast of misfits we meet; we have Merlin and his stairs-hopping, squirrely wife; the over-doting Morgana and her thrust-ball loving son, Mordred; enigmatic chef Lancelot (with an exaggerated accent that even made the actors giggle at the absurdity); Gawain; the flirtatious yet wicked Gwynevere, whose milkshakes indeed bring all the squires to the yard, and the sulky “teenage” Arthur. 

The first half begins with the most absurd section of the show that had the audience in hysterics. The audience were encouraged to pelt the trio with latex fruit and veg, before a parody of Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ began as the actors, one by one, come free of the stocks, revealing their own take on Queen’s signature drag outfits – Dave (my favourite thick-skulled and unwitting character, played by Freeman) adorning a flesh-toned skintight suit with a crochet “willy” that was then velcro-ed to his head and thrown into the audience. 

Adopting elements of Mischief’s ‘Goes Wrong’ shows, the best segments included elements where the audience couldn’t tell what were genuine accidents and character slips, whether it be a wig falling off, being tangled excessively in a messy pile of junk, laughing at each other’s acting (and showcasing their closeness), staring intensely at each other, or falling off a stool – the latter, in particular, sending me howling in hysterics.

While some of the first act’s slips felt a little more scripted, and didn’t always get a laugh from me, others were so absurdly funny that I couldn’t help but be endeared to their silly personas. Other bits felt influenced by the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin: slapping each other with frying pans, hitting each other’s bums, lodging a recorder in their throats, falling dramatically, and shouting at each other when “mistakes” are made in the final act’s script. I particularly enjoyed the little digs at each other for playing multiple roles or still being out of breath from the previous character/scene. 

Fi Russell did a phenomenal job with the set and costumes, mixing the vibes of a painted school-play set (mirroring the rushed nature of the squire’s show and the less glossy reality of Camelot), with a grand castle set with nooks, stairs and trapdoors constantly in use.

Meanwhile, the costumes were jaw-droppingly funny. Seeing a knight riding an ostrich and another with a talking horse and goofy limp legs straddled at the sides was delectably amusing, as was Dave’s fake Gwynevere wig, and the finale knights’ costumes as the trio dance to (yet another corny pun) – ‘December, 1983 (Oh, What A Night)’.

Kids can enjoy the exaggerated physicality and facial movements, Scooby Doo-like chase scenes (well-executed between three cast members playing multiple roles), fart jokes, montages, silly dress up and accents (particularly the French, Italian and Scottish ones), and slapstick while the adults are treated to some subtle and not-so-subtle innuendos, whether in reference to the Lady of Shallot’s “beany boobies” (a skin-tight suit with added padding covered in beans) or an erecting sword- this is about as extreme as the show gets aside from the crochet.

The interval was filled with Medieval lute versions of modern songs from Tones and I’s ‘Dance Monkey’ to Backstreet Boys’ ‘Everybody’ before the second act resumed to a dungeon escape with Queen’s ‘The Show Must Go On’. 

Act 2 oddly felt like a different show, with the entirety of the squire’s Arthurian legend performance taking place here, while the first act was more the set-up of their stooge relationship, learning to act, and discovering the underwhelming nature of Arthur’s weird friends and relatives.

Despite this, it still brings the show full circle, with interjections as the squire’s squabble over what to do in each segment, make mistakes in front of the king, and eventually meeting with the king to see what he thought of their exaggerated show of Camelot’s made-up chivalry.

Hilarious twists on the tales of Gawain and the Green Knight, Percival and the Black Knight, Balin and Balan, and King Arthur’s ‘final’ battle (and resurrection to Cher’s ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’) are told with Morgana as a treacherous villainess, like the stories we’ve come to know, but… weirder. More beans, more silly, cute dragons scooting off the stage, and more hilariously stupid shenanigans. 

While I didn’t laugh at every joke and bit, the sheer mix of humour types was incredible, especially with a cast as dedicated, professional and genuinely convincing as this. Their multi-role performances were nothing short of incredible, playing different characters scene-to-scene, back-to-back, sometimes even having to swap out while on stage or shortly after. Their exaggeration must have been draining and yet each actor perfectly portrayed each character, and even created different personas for when a character impersonated another character. The way Freeman played Gwynevere in two different voices was hilarious, Dunn’s Lancelot was hilarious, and Bunt’s Arthur perfectly captured that mocking sense of childish excitement and entitlement, while still making him the “cool king”.

Ultimately, King Arthur was an incredible battle for the audience’s hearts, with silly characters slowly endearing themselves to us as they try to do the impossible… make Arthur into a legend. The cast’s enigmatic personalities, the well-scripted jokes and gags, the amazing costume and set design, and an amazing variety of comedy styles, including some amazing dad jokes and physically demanding roles made for a hilarious performance from Le Navet Bete.

King Arthur runs at the Lowry (Quays Theatre) until September 28 and tours the UK until November 2.

Photo: Craig Fuller