Edinburgh  Playhouse

September 17th-22nd

Script:   Stagecraft:   Performance:     

Following a furtive few weeks of recuperation from the reviewing the panoply of theatricalisms abounding at the Fringe, I finally felt ready for a play. It was also going to be on at the Edinburgh Playhouse, which is more of a musical theater venue these days & let me begin by saying that with the help of radio mics, it was an excellent experience to see a real play in such a magnificent auditorium as this. So what was it; well its essentially a stage version of a popular ITV show, Benidorm, which I wasn’t personally familiar with, but the vast majority of the audience were, on account of them applauding quite respectfully the entrance of the actors. These were Jake Canuso (Mateo), Janine Duvitski (Jacqueline), Adam Gillen (Liam), Sherrie Hewson (Joyce Temple-Savage), Shelley Longworth (Sam) & Tony Maudsley (Kenneth). Its playwright is Derren Little, who has poured ten years of experience writing the TV scripts into the condensed & quintessential version of his grittily real, cartoonly-caricatured Benidorm.

Benidorm on Stage begins where series ten left off, with the threat of the Solana Hotel being taken over by a larger hotelier group. What diversifies it from a conventional episode are the dance routines, flourishes of Georgian bawdiness, pantomime, cheesy one-liners & a even a top notch poem of thundering fourteeners. The storyline into which this cornucopia of spices was poured was a clever mix of Shakesperean identity-flipping & innuendo, some of which was definitely innuendon’t. There was also a remarkably refreshing classic-old-queen-pursues-young-gay-guy section, which no self-respecting member of the luvvy-duvvy theatre world would touch with a barge-pole, but was done so well in this setting & with these actors, that I was enjoying the exchange with a liberated jollity. Yes, watching Benidorm is a wee wonder in this world of serious theater & rollicking musicals – somewhere inbetween & everyone involved with the production should be proud of bringing such unadulterated live entertainment to the people.

Damo