JADAR

★★★★★

Following the success of Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana – The Untold and Untrue Story, Awkward Productions is back. Whilst their pre-pandemic shows focused on animals and their past couple of shows have parodied pop culture icons, their latest show, The Fit Prince, spoofs the “Prince” and “switch” sub-genre of holiday rom-coms, like those seen on Hallmark, especially A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch.

The Fit Prince is written by Linus Karp and Joseph Martin, who also star in the show, with original music by Leland and an all-star digital cast, including Swedish icon Tove Lo.

When the King of Swedonia dies, Prince Elian (Linus) must find a spouse or lose the throne. A chaotic, comedic plot ensues involving a doppelgänger, a plot to thwart a fascist, and a romance with a New York baker (Joseph). There’s puppetry, music, video elements, audience participation, and much, much more.

It really is remarkable how much Awkward Productions manage to outdo themselves with each show. You think they’ve reached their peak but they continue to surprise, and delight, you. Gwyneth threw everything but the kitchen sink; Diana threw the kitchen sink, too; and The Fit Prince picked up the kitchen sink with a crane and then dropped it on the unsuspecting audience!

The show is very much organised chaos. Every single detail has been planned meticulously. Doing so much, on such a small budget, with such a small team inevitably results in a few faux pas, but these only add to the humour. Linus and Joseph have a remarkable ability to keep things going or graciously laugh off mistakes. They deliberately draw attention to mistakes to heighten the humour in this self-aware, meta farce.

The show relies heavily on audience participation. Before the show, Joseph cast what felt lile half the audience to be part of the show. Whilst I usually love an aisle seat, I kindly gave this one to my friend, Emily, in hopes of avoiding being selected. Just as she complained about audience participation, Joseph cast her as a member of BAAB (ABBA in “Swedonia” – an upside down Sweden, where Linus hails from). After pissing myself laughing, Joseph came back and cast me as a horse! “I’m press,” I said smugly, which usually gets me out of these things, but he truly did not give a shit.

There were two show stops. Each time, a video of Kate Butch (who played Angela Merkel) played, in which she told us there was a show stop and then did improv. After the first video ended, and the technical problems were not fixed, Joseph came onstage and explained the issue, before saying, “We’ve got a reviewer in tonight so I hope you enjoyed it… I also hope you enjoyed being my horse.”

A few times, audience members did not look at the screens and so did not say their lines. The audience did not realise as Linus and Joseph just continued talking before finally referencing the audience member not doing their job. Their ability to just keep on going and bounce off each other is a testament to not only their talent but also their chemistry.

The Fit Prince is first and foremost shameless fun but it also has deeper elements, noticeably subverting heteronormative rom-coms and celebrating Linus’ native Sweden. Like Gwyneth and Diana, it’s not only a parody but also a tribute. It really is quite powerful.

The Fit Prince is, without a doubt, the best Awkward Productions yet, and I cannot wait to see what they do next.