Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: Sleeping Betty ***

Michael Cox reviews a Christmas show lacking in script, even if it has a great cast.

There is currently a Christmas miracle happening at the Tron. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite the miracle the theatre was surely hoping for.

‘Sleeping Betty’ has just turned 16 and wants to impress Handsome Dan at her birthday party. Hamish Hamster, Betty’s best friend, is a trusting soul (who has a major problem with flatulence) and gets duped into giving an invitation to Fairly Evil, who crashes the party with a curse of death on Betty. Luckily, Betty’s Fairly Godfather is on hand to veto the evil spell, lessening it to a sleeping curse instead. But Fairly Evil is still intent on making Betty suffer.

Will Betty manage to stay awake during one of Handsome Dan’s ballads? Will the audience get to learn why this evil fairy has the word ‘fairly’ as a first name? Will Hamish manage to stay out of a dreaded cage? Will Betty’s mother learn that fairies and ogres aren’t necessarily all bad?

Will audiences really care?

Director and designer Kenny Miller has managed to create a production that plods along and has a few fun set pieces to behold. Sadly, playwright David Ireland must have nearly slept past his deadline because his script is practically dead on arrival: paper-thin with barely a plotline or character to invest much in. The dialogue is borderline embarrassing and many of the scenes feel bloated and trivial.

However, Miller must have been wide-awake at casting because he has hired a crackerjack ensemble who practically do no wrong. Amy Scott is clearly more talented than the material she has to deal with and manages to make Betty into an interesting heroine happy to take charge. Louise McCarthy works ridiculously hard to make Fairly Evil into a scene-stealing, all mugging panto villain while Julie Wilson Nimmo, dressed in a pink hamster suit with kitten shoes, is delightful as Hamish. Darren Brownlie has an absolute ball as fop Handsome Dan, and Neil Thomas is excellent in a number of comedic roles, including Betty’s mother and Godfather.

It would be terrific for this wonderfully talented cast to have a far better script to shine with. As it is, Sleeping Betty is a near miss of a train wreck that is valiantly saved by a very able and game cast. It’s occasionally fun, but it should be much better than that.