Everyone of a certain age will have fond memories of Babar, King of the Elephants. Jean de Brunhoff’s cute creation has endured generations since its publication in 1931. Spanish clown Pablo Lechuga has had the great idea of taking the beloved character and embodying him in his later years, pickled by booze and troubled by accusations of being subtly colonialist. It’s a pity that the show itself falls somewhat short of hopes, skirting the periphery of satire, clowning, and character comedy without landing in a satisfying way on either. It’s a frustratingly vague hour.

Lechuga’s Babar costume can’t be faulted. It’s a resplendent, cartoon accurate creation, complete with green suit and natty little gold crown. The performer himself cuts a suitably weary figure, a vaguely King Lear-like wraith of faded regality. It’s a fine entrance, and leaves a small but supportive audience instantly attentive.

It’s soon clear however that there are some really interesting ideas that Luchega isn’t going to fully engage with. There’s the idea of legacy and the colonial angle that gets addressed briefly via a passage of academic text and is then shrugged off in favour of another alcohol joke or having an audience member attempt to throw peanuts into his mouth. He also tantalisingly raises the idea of his mother being murdered by de Brunhoff as the writer of the books, but again it comes to nothing. No-one is expecting some Barthesian ‘Death of the Author‘ navel-gazing, but again he goes on to ignore a potentially fascinating avenue of exploration, like those old fourth-wall breaking Daffy Duck cartoons where’s he’s constantly being redrawn and tormented by his own animator.

Before long Lechuga has jettisoned the Babar costume entirely to appear as two further characters, a chess pawn that attempts to begin a revolution, and an existentially-despondent plastic bag. The pawn sketch does illicit some decent crowd interaction – the audience are absolutely troopers today – but it leaves you wishing that much more was being done with the Babar character. He goes end to end on another tangent completely – one which makes sense on hindsight when you’ve followed the trail of mental peanuts he has scattered during the show – but it’s not one that has anything to do with what’s been promised.

Lechuga also isn’t helped by some tech issues. There are frequent instances where the performer is left waiting for some pre-cued tunes to finish, or begins a routine which gets slightly swallowed by the background music. On a more fundamental level his trunk rather obscures his mouth, which renders him slightly muffled at the best of times.

Pablo Lechuga has done something right with his version of the beloved pachyderm as he’s taken it to a multitude of fringes throughout the world. It’s undeniably such a good idea. But you spend the hour desperate for him to make the most of it, feeling a bit like an exasperated parent watching a gifted child turn down a medical career to become a slam poet. The costume is brilliant, though.

‘Elephant in the Room‘ is at Laughing Horse @ Coco Boho – Main Room until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 18:30