Making a bold early bid for ‘longest show title at this year’s Fringe’, The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)) is Awkward Productions newest theatrical venture. After the resounding success of last year’s Gwyneth Goes Skiing, Awkward’s musical homage to the Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Trial, this year they have turned their attention to the Netflix Christmas romance genre of films.
Set in Swedonia – whose hated enemy is Finlandia – Linus Karp and Joseph Martin are joined on stage by their perpetually unamused stage manager, and a host of queer culture favourites, including Kate Butch and Sebastian Croft (Get Away; Wonderwell, Dampyr). Offering assistance are a fairly large number of audience members, one of whom gets to play a fairly chunky role in proceedings. It’s a heck of a gamble – does it pay off?
So ubiquitous has this sub-genre of movie become over the last few years, that the title of this show alone probably tells you everything you need to be aware of in order to know what to expect. However, this is Awkward, so they’ve pushed things a bit further, and queered everything up magnificently.
Whereas these movies are known for being almost aggressively hetero-normative, here Swedonia is a progressive nation, where marriage equality for all peoples, of all genders, has been a fact of life since the 12th century. It’s a moment that generates a laugh early in the performance, and offers some much needed representation.
The plot, such as it is, starts with a royal funeral, and a frankly ridiculous piece of succession law. Here, Prince Eliam (Linus Karp) must marry before the approaching public holiday of Midsommar (we suspect the holiday changes at each performance) – and wouldn’t you know it: that’s a mere fortnight away! Enter Joseph Martin as Aaron Butcher, a baker in New York city, who has a puppet as a best friend. It all makes sense if you see it…
Fast-tracked to Swedonia to make the cake for the Prince’s forthcoming nuptials (a sub-plot that gets completely forgotten almost immediately after the ‘meet cute’); by this point we’re only around ten minutes into the hour-long performance. Cue the Prince and Aaron bumping into each other, hating each other at first sight, and then being thrown together for the evening by another obscure and ridiculous ‘royal suitor’ rule.
We then get a horse ride, an orphanage, and a BAAB concert (it’s like ABBA. But reversed…), as the Prince and Aaron slowly go from hate to tolerance, to something approaching liking each other. In the background, various supporting characters – played by audience members and various well-known figures who appear via pre-recorded videos – advance the B-plot, a piece of confection involving a doppelganger and a deceitful royal assistant.
Along the way, there are some musical interludes, including some brilliant ABBA parodies during the BAAB ‘concert’. Surely a streaming triumph awaits for pop banger ‘Momentum King’? It ends, predictably, with a wedding, and a very, very un-PG kiss. Most of the various sub-plots are wrapped up nicely, and everyone gets their just desserts. Hoorah!
If you think that this all has the air of pantomime about it, then you’ll not be far wrong. Karp and Martin have taken all of the tropes of these movies and stretched them to breaking point. There’s also some sharp political commentary though: about accepting people for who they are, and, more seriously, about quite how quickly absolute power corrupts. There’s also a very nicely played pastiche of theatre director Jamie Lloyd (Evita, Sunset Boulevard) and his fascination with the use of screens.
Whether you like this or not will depend on how you feel about a sub-genre of movie that’s always had something of a knowing wink to it. There’s obviously a lot of affection for those movies here, but there is also that acknowledgement that no-one is gay, or non-binary, or ethically non-monogamous in any of those films, and that’s a real problem in a world where people want to see themselves, and where the power of screen stories continues to have a huge influence on how people view those around them who live differently to themselves.
As ever with Awkward’s shows, there are more than a few rough edges to this production. Props have been recycled from previous shows, and there are some occasionally rough and ready bits of costuming. But it’s aspects like this that give Awkward’s work its charm.
We are going to advise that there is some swearing in this show, and that might make it unsuitable for younger children or more sensitive teenagers. This is not overdone though, and does once again highlight how removed from the real world those movies are.
Go into this show with your tongue wedged firmly in your cheek – and with a willingness to fully engage with the extensive amount of audience participation – and you will have a great time. Who knows, you might even find a Fit Prince of your very own. Just make sure he’s not his own doppelganger – trust us, it would end badly.
The Fit Prince is both a parody of romance movies and a riotous romance in its own right, with a very happy, very queer ending. You can’t help but fall a little bit in love with it.
The Fit Prince…. continues at 16:40 in Beyond at The Pleasance Courtyard, until August 25 (not 5, 12, 19)
