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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Friday email banter...

From: R
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:32
To: Paul
Subject: Re:
you are like a fione wione me dear…. full bodied and fresh.....haaaaaahhhhhhh
----
From: Paul
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:33
To: R
Subject: Re:
Really? And I thought I was more like vinaigrette... Good to have around with lettuce...
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From: R
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:34
To: Paul
Subject: Re:
you calling me lettuce
----
From: Paul
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:38
To: R
Subject: Re:
Like a roquet...
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From: R
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:41
To: Paul
Subject: Re:
any blue cheese involved here or just a salad medley
----
From: Paul
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:50
To: R
Subject: Re:
Tossed salad... Maybe some blue vein...
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From: R
Sent: 18 August 2006 17:52
To: Paul
Subject: Re:
oh my god I have just spat tea out all over my desk.....
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It was one of those days…

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