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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...

Streaming Queens: The Crown Dual @KingsHeadthtr


Even if you haven’t watched The Crown on Netflix, there’s much to be amused about in The Crown Dual. A meta-spoof on the public’s endless fascination for dramatisations about the lives of the royal family. And all things royal for that matter. It’s currently playing at the Kings Head Theatre.

The premise is that Beth Buckingham (Rosie Holt) and her dubious agent and patio specialist Stanley (Brendan Murphy) are going to recreate Beth’s showreel audition for The Crown. And prove that she would have been far more talented than that Claire Foy in the role.


And so beings a rather silly and at times hilarious recreation of the best and most preposterous bits of the first series of The Crown. With Holt or Murphy playing a range of cast members, sending up both the characters and their fictional television characterisations. Both have great comic timing and make a  somewhat regal pair.

The lives of the Royal Family often seem like the subject matter for a farce. Here it’s an entertaining journey. And a lot more fun than the dreary play A Princess Undone, which covered some of the same material as if it was of grave national importance.


The other genius in the piece is also to make fun of the emerging conventions of a Netflix television series. From the skip intro feature, over-bloated production budgets and annoying premise to introduce new characters in the final episodes (so you continue watching next year when the new series lands). It's all here to remind us that the jokes on us for watching this garbage in the first place.

Written by Daniel Clarkson of Potted Potter etc fame, and directed by Owen Lewis, this is a frightfully witty diversion at the Kings Head Theatre until 6 April.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Geraint Lewis

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