The Cadaver Palaver is a tale of derring-do, told by late Victorian-era adventurer Bennett Cooper Sullivan (Christopher Samuel Carroll). The production is being staged in The Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall, which is nodded to in the script, and which is a great venue for this particular tale. Carroll makes excellent use of the space, and the extreme rake of the seating means that his work on the floor isn’t lost. 

The story is something of a tall tale, but incredibly well constructed. We begin with Sullivan fighting his way out of an Afghan prison, where he is being held for crimes unspecified. By the end of the piece, we come to realise that it could have been any one of several transgressions. Sullivan is the sort of anti-hero you can’t help rooting for. He’s fully engaged in colonialism and the looting of ancient sites, especially in Egypt, but yet you still want him to come out on top. 

Sullivan is a product of the Victorian era of the gentleman adventurer, and he’s reciting to us his tale of what happened after he managed to escape Kandahar and find his way back to good old Blighty. 

After a spell in London, first in Elephant and Castle, and then in Bethnal Green, it becomes obvious that Sullivan is being drawn into a mystery. Carroll’s storytelling is exceptionally strong. He invoked incredibly strong images of the places Sullivan finds himself in – you can absolutely envision the locations he describes. 

Carroll delights in channelling the absurd through Sullivan. Sullivan is, absolutely, that particularly pompous sort of Englishman who has a pithy witticism for every circumstance and observational skills which would make Sherlock Holmes jealous. 

Leaning into the absurdity, there’s a series of recurring encounters with a character called Ogilvy, whose arms Sullivan keeps on accidentally chopping off. Like the Black Knight of Monty Python, however, Ogilvy keeps on coming back for more. 

Ogivy’s fate is just one of several moments in the show that are described in fairly graphic terms, and that makes this not a show for younger children. There’s also some fairly adult humour in evidence.

Sullivan’s story takes him to Edinburgh, where the mystery deepens. There are hot houses, anatomy demonstrations, and an awful lot of Egyptology. There’s also a satisfying resolution to the narrative, which has been foreshadowed nicely throughout, subtly, but not so subtly that the clues can’t be picked up on.

Leaning into a huge number of tropes helps Carroll to be able to create that convincing world – half his job has been done for him by numerous popular culture texts. But it’s in how these are used, and how the story is constructed that all works together to make this an epic, funny, disturbing, and marvellous ‘Boys Own’ adventure, with a knowing nod to modern social mores. 

It’s a long trek down to Summerhall, but that’s as nothing compared to the journey undertaken by Bennett Cooper Sullivan. Carroll’s consummate, energetic storytelling makes this a world we want to hear more from. 

The Cadaver Palaver continues in The Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall, at 10:15am, daily until 25 August (not 11, 18)