25 August 2022
On paper, an absurdist allegorical urban fairy tale, set to music and based partly in a fish and chip shop freezer, might not sound a completely bankable theatrical proposition, even for the fringe. Actually, Frydays, written and performed by Louis Turner and Madeline Hatt and playing at the Camden People’s Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe, is really rather good.
The show’s opening sees the two protagonists, twins Chris (Turner) and Chriss (Hatt), reluctantly emerge headfirst, dazed, and confused, from a chest freezer in the back room of their late father’s small-town chippy. The scene brings strikingly to mind Nagg and Nell’s appearance in Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece of absurdism Endgame. The allusion may or may not be accidental, but the absurdist undercurrents running through this often surreal comedy about moving on from grief are palpable.
The twins have spent the year since their father’s death (he tripped over a frozen haddock) hidden away, engrossed in their own world of storytelling and games. Their comfortable seclusion is interrupted by a persistent and urgent knock at the chippy door. Former customer Crystal, a kind of fairy godmother cum spiritual medium, has a message from dad on the other side. The shop is threatened. The despicable Fryer’s Union run by evil competitor Charlie Bass wants to seize the shop, eject the twins, and close it down. To save themselves and their inheritance the twins must go on a quest for find dad’s will. In their way stand Ricky and Rumble, tough guy enforcers from the Fryer’s Union. Can Chris and Chriss prevail and save the shop?
Hatt and Turner populate the twin’s quest, which is really about finding their own hidden strengths, with some memorable characters. Among others there is Dan the decidedly dodgy ice-cream van man, a pair of enormously camp lingerie shop owners, and a rather pervy hotel manager. Pulling all this characterisation off with a cast of two and a limited selection of hats is quite a challenge. But in the main it works. This is a testament to two likeable and capable comic performers whose talents extend to some mean melody-making with plastic kazoos.
Frydays carries a simple and amiable message in a cleverly assembled 65-minutes of fun. It brims with clever songs, creative adult humour, and just the right level of audience interaction. What’s not to like about that
Duration: 60 Minutes
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