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ED2013 4/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews
Pants On Fire’s Pinocchio (Pants On Fire)
By Gavin Leech | Published on Thursday 8 August 2013
A sinister and silly modernisation of the fairytale, via Frankenstein, B-movies and dubstep. It starts off having issues: the play is bookended by leaden ‘profound’ voice-overs, the story’s moral – “for god’s sake go to school” – is repeated over-much, and the soundtrack blares out at regular irritating intervals. But the physical comedy more than saves it: the cast’s full-body puppetry, goofy accents – including a perfect John Lithgow – animal costumes, and 1950s advertising jingles are really great. And the whole thing is crammed full of ideas – they change the set, in seconds, dozens of times. Pinocchio is here a brat rather than an innocent misled, but his luck’s so bad and his rise so grand that you forgive him before the poignant finish.
Pleasance King Dome, until Aug 26, 1.00pm.
tw rating 4/5 │ [Gavin Leech]
