The Three Musketeers takes a gloriously chaotic turn - review

Our Star Theatre Company brought its own anarchic take on The Three Musketeers to The Edge Arts Centre on Saturday, in a production where keeping a straight face was almost as difficult as keeping the plot on track.

Directed by Ben Mowbray, the show embraced silliness, slapstick and costume confusion, with Aqueal Blandford playing Athos as well as the Queen of France, Zinnia Bowman taking on Porthos and the thoroughly boo-able Cardinal Richelieu, and Cerys Rose Jones as Aramis and the Cardinal’s henchman, Brie.

All three also doubled up in a variety of other characters, adding to the sense that anything could happen next.

The biggest running joke began before Aramis had even appeared. The actor arrived late, dressed as a pirate and fully expecting to be performing Treasure Island rather than The Three Musketeers.

From then on, her apparent unfamiliarity with the script became a recurring source of comedy, with references to an eye patch, a parrot and an ever-growing collection of pirate-related paraphernalia.

There were plenty of other opportunities for comic mayhem, including costume mix-ups, full panto-style booing whenever Cardinal Richelieu appeared, and an absurd song addressing the obvious question: why don't the Musketeers actually have muskets?

This was theatre that made little attempt to take itself seriously, and that was central to its appeal.

The cast threw themselves into the silliness, with physical comedy and increasingly ridiculous situations keeping the story moving, even when the plot threatened to disappear altogether.

The result was a deliberately chaotic family production, with enough jokes and audience interaction to keep both children and adults entertained.