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Cannibal Women of Mars 

Tron Theatre, Glasgow
3 stars
The clue is in the title of this new comedy sci-fi musical by Mick 
Cooke, Gordon Davidson and Alan Wilkinson as to what it's about. Set a 
hundred years into the future, the earth is so overcrowded that sex has 
been banned, leaving shiny shell-suited virgins Largs and Jaxxon on a 
mission to pop their cherry by way of a one-way ticket to Mars to help 
repopulate a planet occupied  solely by women. When they fall into the 
clutches of Queen Beatrice and her man-hungry daughters Pippa and 
Yasmin, however, they appear to have bitten off more than they can 
chew.

Andy Arnold's production, a collaboration between the Tron, Twentytwo 
Productions and Limelight, blasts off with a series of libidinous 
scenarios in a camp cartoon of a show that boldly goes places that 
taste forgot. Arnold's production is rough round the edges, as fringe 
musicals should be, and is enlivened by a fistful of songs accompanied 
by a four-piece band led by musical director Sally Clay. There are some 
larger than life comic turns from Darren Brownlie and Mark Prendergast 
as Largs and Jaxxon, Marj Hogarth makes for a scarifyingly predatory 
Queen, while Helen McAlpine and Fiona Wood are in fine voice as the 
pneumatic sisters.

Gavin Mitchell steals the show with a series of bite-size cameos, from 
the James Bond villain pastiche of Earth's President, to the nutty 
professor who might well be related to Dr Strangelove. If the material 
sometimes doesn't match the performances, it's too throwaway to matter, 
and when the libidinous aliens urge us to “Throw down your guns and 
pull down your pants,” it's as sound advice as any.


The Herald, July 10th 2013

ends
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