Back in August, I reviewed a lot of shows that were a part of the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Many of those shows have continued to have a life after August, and one of them, The Fruity Prince, invited me to see their latest version, now being staged for two short runs in London.
I saw the penultimate performance of the first of these two runs, at the Drayton Arms Theatre, a venue above a pub on the edge of Chelsea, but with a thriving student population courtesy of nearby Imperial College.
The Fruity Prince before
The last time I saw this, I noted that there was a lot working against the company, but that the story was the strongest element of The Fruity Prince.
Thankfully, the strength of the story remains, and it has been refined to make it even stronger. There’s now a prologue, which helps the audience make sense of what’s to come. It also ties into the “Shakespearian” vibe of the whole show.
The Shakespeare link has been developed more, which really works. There’s a tremendously funny sequence involving an alternative version of Titus Andronicius, which is very queer, and very rude.
There’s also a suggestion that Shakespeare was subject to an early version of book burning, which perhaps gives another angle to consider when we think about the much rumoured lost works of the bard.
The plot
The story remains essentially the same: Henry (Toby France), is the illegitimate son of Elizabeth I (Tandazani Sigauke). Liz is going to declare Henry her heir, and re-write the constitution to deal with the fact that she’s not married.
Henry, still a teenager, is much more interested in acting, and in being in love with Jonty (John Posnett), one of his fellow actors at The Globe. When Liz isn’t busy condemning Shakespeare (Katie Driver) for his lewdness, she’s busy trying to marry Henry off to Gertrude (also Driver, multi-rolling).
Review
Whilst we now get to understand more about the overall story, I’d like more character development of Jonty. At the moment he just sort of appears in a scene, and then the character is in the thick of the plot. More background would allow us to care more about him, to understand who he is, and what the stakes are here for him.
The show is still being made on an ultra-low budget, but I think that currently this actually works for the overall aesthetic. It’s the story that matters most, and the audience can go the rest of the way themselves, having been given the ideas that the company are trying to convey.
An increased budget would help in the future, once the shape of the show has been settled on. Microphones for instance would help with being able to clearly hear the vocals during the songs.
Removed from the intensity of the Fringe, the demands of commercial theatre mean that an interval has now been added, although the show still remains about an hour long overall.
The point in the narrative where the break occurs works. It helps to provide some tension and a cliffhanger in a narrative that ploughs forwards at a sometimes frenetic pace.
Whilst the cast and company is still just four people, they seem much more coherent as a group – with the timing and pacing being noticeably tighter.
If anything, the story now seems to be being hampered by the determination to keep it within a Fringe-friendly running time of 60 minutes. But the Fringe is more flexible than it used to be, and a longer running time would allow for the development of the character of Jonty. There are also parts of the story which would merit expansion to be extended.
Final thoughts
Theatre shows are rarely deemed ‘finished’ – even large West End productions are subject to changes as they continue their runs. Smaller scale shows, as this is right now, have a great opportunity to try out different variants of the story they are telling.
We don’t give out ‘part stars’, but if we did, I’d be awarding 3.5 stars here. As it is, the headline star rating is the same as it was in August.
But this is a stronger show now. The story has been refined, and what there now is zings along at a more satisfying pace. I look forward to seeing the next version, at a future date.
As writer Toby France says as Henry: “We now live in a world where stories like Henry’s can finally be told. At this stage, adding everything the company wants to, to see what works and what doesn’t, might be a valuable exercise – just to see how else the story might be able to grow.”
The Fruity Prince will be at The Space, on the Isle of Dogs in London, from January 9 to 13, 2024.
Featured Image Credit: The Pesky Players
