ONE of life’s great unsolved mysteries is why Jonathan Harvey has never written a play for the Royal Court before. It seems as though nobody ever asked him, but this oversight has now been rectified. The impending arrival of the Eurovision Song Contest to the city was a golden opportunity to bring the playwright who has previously penned Boom Bang-A-Bang together with the theatre that knows best of all how Liverpool loves a party.
A Thong for Europe was commissioned and produced in what must be almost record time, and is set to entertain audiences right the way through to the 27th May, a fortnight after the final, so canny visitors to Liverpool from around the globe will get a chance to experience some genuinely homegrown entertainment while they are here.
Lulu (Lindzi Germain) is a huge fan of all things Eurovision. It is a trait she inherited from her mother Steph (Eithne Browne) who has sadly passed away when she was finally about to see the contest come to her home city. The play opens in typical Harvey dark humour style at Steph’s funeral, with Lulu delivering a toe-curlingly awkward eulogy at a level of decibels that could stop all the clocks. But she is stopped in her tracks when Steph returns from beyond the grave before she even gets there to issue a challenge. Lulu must find a way to scatter her mother’s ashes on the stage at the arena during the grand final, or risk being haunted for the rest of her life.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Lulu is camping out in her own garden so that she can rent out rooms in her house (in Waterloo naturally) to people visiting for Eurovision. One of these guests turns out to be Beryl, a singer from Balkania, who is representing her newly discovered country in the contest. This seems to afford an ideal chance for Lulu to get in on the act – literally – and therefore gain access to the arena stage.
You can guarantee, however, that nothing could be quite so simple. Another star to arrive on the doorstep is local songstress and douze points doyenne Sonia. Lulu’s famous Sonia tribute act has resulted in a restraining order, so putting the two of them in the same room is bound to get the fireworks going long before the grand final. Add to that a list of phobias that Sonia suffers from… but wait… no more spoilers!
Although on the surface it seems to be a vehicle for a barrage of Eurovision hits from across the decades, Harvey has come up with a nicely layered piece of storytelling that blends pathos with sharply witty comic dialogue in his characteristic style. Surely nobody but he could have dreamed of writing a sub-plot in which it turns out that Lulu’s son Terry (Andro Cowperthwaite) has spent much of his life agonising over how to come out to his mother as straight.
But no show about Eurovision would be complete without the music and MD George Francis, who directs his onstage band from the keyboards, has made splendid arrangements of a great selection of entries from years gone by. The entire cast are in very fine voice, with Emma Bispham as Beryl from Balkania and Keddy Sutton as Sonia (but also doing her inimitable quick change routine to bring us three other characters too). Even the pair of ensemble performers Adam Scotland and Kathy Bancroft turn out to be great vocalists too. The list of songs seems endless, but one of the biggest highlights comes at the close of Act I, in which Bispham and Browne bring the house down with a startlingly powerful rendition of Rise Like A Phoenix. There is also some very nifty video work from Jamie Jenkin, lending some added excitement to the visual impact of the show.
This is a show that has all the right ingredients. Yes, it’s a comedy that ticks all the boxes for the Royal Court, but it’s also a really affectionate tribute to Eurovision that taps into the deep sense of pride that the city has in being able to host the contest on behalf of Ukraine this year. The Balkanian entry is one song that we haven’t heard before, though. ‘I Love You Europe’ was of course written by Harvey and opens its arms in the same big hug that the recently revealed arena stage set is designed to do. If you weren’t in the Eurovision mood already then you certainly will be after seeing this show.
A Thong For Europe runs until 27th May and is already one of the Court’s fastest selling shows, so hurry if you want to snap up tickets.
Star rating – 4½ stars
Review by Nigel Smith
