Theatre review: The Frogs

I've seen two previous shows from Spymonkey, the veteran physical comedy troupe who tend to be a lot more hit than miss. Even if I wasn't seeing it on a quiet Monday night their latest show would come across as a little less full-on than the others though, as it comes with an added element of melancholy as the established quartet is now a duo: Petra Massey has left the company and Stephan Kreiss died suddenly in 2021, so there's an added significance to the remaining pair of Toby Park and Aitor Basauri tackling Aristophanes' The Frogs, itself written in reaction to the death of a beloved theatrical figure. That figure is Euripides, the Greek tragedian who'd died a year before Aristophanes premiered this parody of a heroic quest. With him gone Dionysus, Olympian god of drama (Park) thinks theatre is doomed, and decides to get him back.

He and his human servant Xanthius (Basauri) seek advice from Heracles, who's already journeyed to the Underworld, on how to get there and back with the minimum inconvenience to a pampered deity.

The original cast members are joined by Jacoba Williams as the nepo baby niece of the production's backer, taking on the role of Heracles and various creatures of the Underworld providing obstacles to the quest. She fits in very comfortably with the silly, clowning style of the company, but the play is clear that she's there as an enabler of the company's new iteration, rather than becoming its newest member: Part of the theme of Carl Grose's adaptation is that The Frogs is the archetypal appearance of the classic comedy double act.

So you have the combination of the idiot who knows he's an idiot - Xanthius - and the idiot who thinks he's smart - Dionysus. Spymonkey's telling of the story keeps jumping out of it though, as the actors get caught in a parallel theatrical universe between scenes, deconstructing the real-life changes on the company and their own attempts to handle their grief through comedy: Ultimately Basauri and Park discover they're taking on the story of a journey into death because they hope they can find and bring back Kreiss.

The idea is a moving one as well as offering the comic potential that brought the original team together in the first place, but Joyce Henderson's production can't quite pull together the extremes, or the fact that there's too many layers of deconstruction. That's not to say the comic moments aren't great - I particularly liked the idea that the ferryman of the Underworld is called Sharon - and there's parts that are genuinely moving, but there's awkward lulls as we try to get from one to the other. In the end, if this is the transitional stage to "Spymonkey 2.0" it does feel like that: Not quite there but promising that a different kind of dynamic is worth pursuing.

The Frogs by Aristophanes in a version by Carl Grose and Spymonkey is booking until the 2nd of March at the Kiln Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.