Elisabeth Flett
The world as we know it is gone! The age of humans is over! The reign of eels has begun! All hail the eels!
Join an disgraced eel scientist and Geezer the London con-woman as they hide in their super secret underwater bunker, resist the urge to drink all their back-up moonshine and just generally do their best to survive Eelmageddon. Mama Eel is on the hunt, and if the Eel Death Ray is deployed then there really is no hope for the last remnants of humanity. It’s a good thing that these two have all the specialist knowledge anyone could ever hope to need – even if the scientist is just a bit too into the eels, and their sexy, sexy eggs.
An eel orgy could never be the answer to anything… or could it?
Devised and performed by John Chisholm and Becca King, this show is a love letter to surrealist comedy. An almost hysterical freneticism rules throughout, with Monty Python-style nonsensical physical comedy, fourth wall breaks, deliberately overly dramatic lighting and humorous audio cues adding to the feeling that the audience has just fallen into an unfolding acid trip which could quite literally go anywhere and come to any manner of wild conclusions. This is a show, after all, which starts with King donning a latex monster mask, accepting a plastic crown from her eel henchmen and striding out onstage to tell us all, in rhyme, that Mama Eel is ready for her revenge against the entire human race and general world domination. The vibes rapidly escalate.
Zany characters with even zanier accents – “oh no” is pronounced “oh nö” for the entire play by our disgraced eel scientist, who seems to hail from several different places as the hour continues – hymns to the great eel god, party balloons, dance offs, and a presentation on the joys of eel attraction all feature, with one of the funniest gags of the entire show including George Michael’s sax line summoning our wriggly enemies for a eel sex orgy. Becca King delivers a surprisingly grounded performance in the midst of this chaos, moving onstage with a smooth, committed physicality which lends an air of authenticity to the ridiculously slithery situation in which her character finds herself. John Chisholm’s character choices are more in the style of the classically understated English comedy man; Hugh Laurie, if Hugh Laurie ever had to wriggle into a one piece shiny body suit onstage behind decorative camo netting.
Eelmageddon is a show which starts off strong, but that initial confidence falters into dialogue which needs tightening up and a plot which is just a little bit too impenetrable (eel sex joke not intended). The sections of this show focussing on audience participation were excellent, and more of this element would help steer the focus of Eelmageddon towards a fun collaborative experience rather than the show trying to be too many things at once – the audience is, after all, apparently the last few remaining humans alive on the destroyed planet, huddled together in an underwater secret bunker, and our help is needed if we’re going to survive. Exploring that participatory element to the show to the very fullest would help Eelmageddon reach its full potential, and would help move the plot along in a way less reliant on repetitive back-and-forth dialogue.
The end of Eelmageddon – a joyous, technicoloured celebration of all things eel – is an assured return to the fast paced, quick-fire comedy from the beginning of the show, leaving the audience with a smile on their face and an ode to the Eel Deity on their lips.
There is a lot to enjoy in Eelmageddon. I for one welcome our new slippery overlords.
Recommended Drink: Geezer’s homemade moonshine sounds like the ideal accompaniment to this nonsensically strange theatre-going experience.
You can catch Eelmageddon at Theatre at Bedlam Theatre from now until 17th August at 21:30 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jasmine Silk
Phoebe Bakker
