It's Gonna Blow!

MUST SEE SHOW!

How often do men really think about the Roman Empire? For Freddie Walker and Sean Wareing, the answer is clearly pretty frequently, and it’s completely to their credit. Their script for It’s Gonna Blow is a complete masterclass in character comedy, complete with Monty Python-esque farce, praiseworthy (or groanworthy, if you’re so inclined) puns, and just the perfect balance of gentle audience participation to really blow your socks off.

The show is set in a public forum, and you yourselves, the audience, are Roman citizens. But it’s not just any public forum. It’s the Pompeiian public forum, and it’s the fourth of Augustus 79 AD – volcano day. A completely immersive experience, with the cast even milling about in the queue before the show starts, the action starts from the get-go and never drops the ball. What follows is an hour packed full with zany characters, from crooked merchants, mimes after justice, and various Roman townsfolk, out to air their grievances – and in some cases, their dirty laundry. And all the while, the great volcano rumbles.

The four-strong cast is an absolute powerhouse – seamlessly switching from character to character without missing a single beat, with some impressive improv skills from Wareing especially. Freddie Walker and Sean Wareing make a strong return, with Walker flexing his impressive accent skills and physical comedy chops, and Wareing throwing out some exhaustive tongue-twisters with eminent ease. Arguably, he’s done it to himself, but with evident gusto. Fresh faces Elinor Solly and Yasmine Meaden round out the cast this year, with Solly playing a series of rascals and rogues, each more ridiculous than the last. And her recorder skills are especially impressive! Meaden’s Mayor Fausta is a particular stand-out favourite, with just the right air of snooty cunning and devious political machination to make her one of those characters you just love to hate.

I had the absolute pleasure of seeing their Fringe production last year, Burning Down the Horse – I’ll admit, I was drawn in by the colourful poster and the Talking Heads pun in the title. I’m thrilled to say they’ve got another absolute hit on their hands, and one that will be a delight to audiences of all ages. Honestly? I think it’s one of the funniest shows I’ll see all Fringe. Fishing4Chips has gone from strength to absolute strength, and I’m incredibly excited to see what they’ll do next.

FringeReview

There’s something sweetly poetic that Fishing4Chips should bring their latest show, an immersive comedy set in 79AD Pompeii, to Edinburgh, a city built on an extinct volcano! But there’s nothing dormant about It’s Gonna Blow!

The action erupts (someone, please make the puns stop) before you even get into the theatre as the cast, fully in character, interact with you while you are in the queue. You are no longer Fringe attendees heading into Queen Dome – you are Pompeians, heading into your Town Hall for the bi-monthly forum where you can air your local grievances. At this performance, people in the queue were moaning about too many trees, others not enough beer. And, as with any municipal gathering, naturally the thorny topic of bins gets an airing.

Thus the stage is set, building up a picture of everyday life in Pompeii, complete with quotidian gripes, moans and squabbles. The talented cast of four play multiple inhabitants of the Roman city – including Robertus who runs his own pasta and dessert making classes, Oceanus, the pipe smoking fisherman (played with surreal absurdity by Elinor Solly), and Agrippa the farmer, among many others.

It is against the normality of everyday life that rumours suggesting all might not be well start to trickle through. Although not if Mayor Fausta has anything to say about it. Pitched somewhere between Margaret Thatcher and Holly Willoughby, Yasmine Meaden nails the slippery, patronising unctuousness of a career politician who is determined to silence anything that contradicts her agenda. Equally resolute are the It’s Gonna Blow Foundation who are determined to reveal the worrying signs of impending environmental threat. And not to forget Salvus (Sean Wareing) a dodgy dealer bent on cashing in on the growing crisis with his pumice precautionary protection devices (that look quite a lot like cushions).
Those who have seen Fishing4Chips shows before will be delighted to know that their trademark silliness, their inability to resist a pun or five, and their very gentle audience participation are all present and correct. Their skill in making you care about the characters in such a short time continues to impress. Wareing’s scene-stealing goblin Nymphius, a reviled outsider whose prophetic observations from his belltower, is both loveable but also leans into the satire of those who are othered being ignored. Similarly Freddie Walker‘s dual role of husband and wife Laverna and Gratus (never seen at the same time for obvious reasons) takes on a surprising emotional punch when we learn of their fate.

While their last show, Burning Down The Horse, latched on to the blueprint of a historical show playing out in real time with all the added jeopardy that goes with it, It’s Going To Blow follows that but with greater ambitions. Climate inaction, how protesters are marginalised and even the treatment of migrants are sewn into the story with a dexterity that never feels shoehorned or inorganic – and is a credit to the script of Wareing and Walker that they continue to test the limits and find depthful parallels in what is a fun immersive comedy piece.

It’s a fast-paced hurtle towards that fateful day and if there were any quibble about the show currently, it’s that it is slightly frenetic in places with so many exits and entrances of the multitude of characters that you start to see the effort and lose the character.

Without wanting to spoil or even hint at the ending, It’s Gonna Blow! reaches a climax so surprising and devastating, it manages to rival Vesuvius itself.

As Pompeii themes go, it’s not quite as saucy as Frankie Howerd’s foray to the forum or as chart-friendly as the band but all in all, it’s a lava-rly day out (Ed: that doesn’t work at all). It’s a hot ticket (Ed: that’s so generic it could be AI, anything better?). Dripping with molten mischief? (Ed: okay I’ll be magma-nimous). Got it – It’s Gonna Blow! is pyroclastic fantastic.

The Recs

The tragedy of Pompeii is well known and well covered in media, but rarely do the topics of local government and ancient tragedy come together in people’s minds. Yet Fishing4chips’ It’s Gonna Blow decides to look at the famous classical disaster in a brilliantly pantomime-like fashion, as it explores the different responses to an impending and obvious disaster.

Set in a city council meeting at Pompeii town hall on the day of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, It’s Gonna Blow follows a wide variety of figures from Pompeii going about what will be their last day alive, with the audience acting as additional residents watching the meeting take place. Each cast member, despite the large amount of multi-rolling, fills their characters with bounds of life just before they are snuffed out. From Sean Wareing’s weaselly council administrator and bashful pumice protection salesman, to Freddie Walker’s local farmer desperate to find out who has messed with his bins, and the suspiciously similar looking husband-and-wife pair – each character is as distinct and bombastic as the last, and it never feels confusing as they speedily swap between them, sometimes in what feels like seconds.

The plot, although somewhat simple, moves things along excellently. As the show explores how the rich try to escape the island while leaving the common audience members to burn, it is the strength of the audience work that turns what could have been a fairly basic structure into such a fun time. Yasmine Meaden’s extreme environmentalist parody and Elinor Solly’s mime pull the audience literally onto the stage in a way that never feels forced but earns every laugh it gets.
It’s Gonna Blow covers a lot of ground in its hour. With hordes of distinct characters, brilliant audience interaction and clever use of the audience’s awareness of the impending doom to heighten the hilarity of bureaucratic failure, Fishing4chips have created a unique experience – as much fun to (somewhat) star in as it is to watch the insanity unfold.

Broadway Baby