Theatre review

Blissfully dysfunctional
It can’t be much fun sat on those plush palace sofas right now watching Gogglebox, having heated debates over the quality and relevance of TV programmes while worrying when the next scandal will rear its ugly head to bring the dysfunctional “Firm” into disrepute once more. There could not be a better time for a parody of their predicament. Welcome to the world of The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales Theatre – well chosen venue by the producers). Apparently the TV series of the same name is a hoot. I was pleased I had not seen it thereby allowing me to come into this wacky pantomimic world with an open mind ready for scandal, smut and stupidity. They provide it in abundance.
The easy option would have been a Spitting Image like lampooning. But let’s face it all families can be lampooned and however much we may read about this one in the media we don’t actually know them in the way we know our own family goutsoumbollia and bellara. TV series writers George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore give us a right royal soap opera with newly crowned King Charles at loggerheads with eldest son Wills who is determined to get the crown. Camilla will have none of it and is equally determined to put the young upstart in his place and rule the country as if she has the genes of both Margaret Thatcher and Boudicca. Wills looks across the pond to California in the vain and foolish hope that Harry and Meghan will come to his rescue instead of their rescue chickens. All this as Beatrice and Eugenie are also determined, to clear their father’s name. Cue silly songs, sword fights and snogging competitions
The show treads a very fine line between pantomime and farce and just about gets away with it as director Michael Fentiman knows when the madness can be spun out for more laughs and equally when to cut the shenanigans and move it on to the next charade. Madeleine Girling’s set is lavish and sybaritic, a picture of pomp and plush, but it is Hilary Lewis’s outlandish costumes that take the biscuit. A sartorial masterpiece in regal representation that captures the essence of who and what they are. Tracey-Ann Oberman (Camilla) not only steals the show with her comic timing but it is also her Tudor garb that tends to upstage all the other characters. Harry Enfield (Charles), dressed like a modern day count jester, gets the mannerisms off to a tee but I found Crystal Condie’s Meghan more ridicule than comical as though the writers were conflicted about how to portray her. Providing bonkers and over the top mickey taking comes from Eliza Butterworth (Eugenie) and Jenny Rainsford (Beatrice) who send the whole thing up. This despite their serious plea to clear their father’s name which I found a touch unpalatable.
The songs are largely forgettable but the visual and comic treats more than make up for that and by the end my initial scepticism had been largely diminished and won me over, making it a fun distracting show. My companion, a staunch royalist, was in her words “royally entertained”. I genuflect to her septuagenarian judgment.
The Windsors:Endgame – www.thewindsorsendgame.com