The
Playhouse, Edinburgh
Four
stars
The
Sun looks like setting on the Solana Hotel at the start of Derren Litten’s
end-of-the-pier adaptation of his phenomenally successful Brits-abroad sit-com.
Picking up from the tenth-series swan-song, Litten’s script sees new owners of
the expat paradise intent on a make-over of the Solana’s crumbling if still
gaudily cheap-as-chips interior. Rooms are at rock bottom prices for good
reason, as posh couple Sophie and Ben arrive at reception like cuckoos in an
increasingly madcap nest for a cheap holiday in both their and other people’s
misery.
Like
a spray-tanned cocktail of Crossroads, Fawlty Towers and Hi De-Hi! on the Med,
Ed Curtis’ production brings six of Benidorm’s original TV cast for what is
essentially two episodes-worth of salami-sized innuendo and dubious
Spanish-English wordplay, the likes of which hasn’t been heard since Mind Your
Language graced our pre-PC screens.
From
the moment the show’s theme music strikes up the audience are up for it. There
are panto-sized cheers for every entrance, from Sherrie Hewson’s brittle
middle-manager Joyce and Shelley Longworth’s perennially peppy Sam, to Tony
Maudsley’s doyen of on-site hairdressing salon Blow-and-Go, Kenneth, and his
sidekick Liam, played by Adam Gillen.
The
second half, set in Neptune’s Bar, becomes a mini talent show that allows Jake
Canuso’s dancing to reveal a showman beyond what’s in hotel bar lothario
Mateo’s pants. With the show peppered throughout with songs performed by real
life crooner Asa Elliott, this set of extended cabaret turns are worth the
ticket price alone to see the divine Janine Duvitski singing 1950s pop hit,
Rubber Ball, while riding the backs of a pair of bronzed himbos. In what might
well be an extended metaphor for Brexit’s imminent tsunami of Little
Britain-ism writ large, this is a bawdy reminder of life as a saucy seaside
postcard that looks destined to make audiences wish they were very much here.
The Herald, September 19th 2018
ends
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