Showing @ Traverse Theatre until 24th Dec
Christmas: a time of festivity, when we are confront what friends and family mean to us, then commodify our affections with our credit cards. In case the warm fuzzy feeling of friendship is buried by consumerism, the Three Musketeers are back to dig it up. Bottomless bottles of booze, countless cakes and enough lust to melt ice: they are Sex and the City without the spending power.
Wannabe musketeer D’Artagnan (Oliver Gomm) embarks on an adventure to rescue the Princess of Spain from the power-hungry Cardinal (Clive Mendus-cue boos and hisses) restoring peace and prosperity to Paris. If only he can convince the Musketeers to abandon retirement, defeat a baby-eating monster and find the greatest thing in the world.
With farting and gin aplenty, Dominic Hill’s production is quick to rouse laughter and a sense of camaraderie among grown-ups and kids alike. In Chris Hannan’s original story, the Musketeers are as they’ve never been before: a drinker, a womaniser and a comfort-eater. His script twists to take the plot in unexpected directions and sharp, witty dialogue offers something more intellectually demanding than most of the Christmas cheese you’ll be exposed to. Threats of higher taxes from the Cardinal are enough to provoke boos, but don’t feel pressured to apply panto etiquette, this is your seasonal alternative. Complex ideas of loneliness and identity are discussed amid puppetry, live music and sword-fighting sequences. It speaks without patronising and is ambitious without overreaching; therein lies the rub. As D’Artagnan discovers, feelings aren’t all that bad if we let them be and the L-word is better proved by action than materialism. Our consumerist culture may be quick to brand the Musketeers message as cheesy, but don’t go along with it just because it’s Christmas. We can be ‘all for one and one for all’ all year round. Needless to say, there’s a Musketeer in all of us.