The Devil and Mister Punch is delightfully macabre and laugh out loud funny
Theatre
THE DEVIL AND MR PUNCH
The Barbican
****
The Devil and Mister Punch is the seaside theatre production from your nightmares, where human-sized puppets wielding baseball bats break loose from the stage and Mister Punch gets chased through hell by giant penises.
The action takes place in a Punch and Judy tent that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dali painting, riddled with hidden trapdoors and secret openings from which puppets and actors leap unexpectedly.
There is a central thread involving the eponymous Mister Punch, in which he finally gets his comeuppance for a life of violence and crime. Judy lies slain, his baby is dead and the policeman is very, very angry. When the crocodile is called as a witness at his trial, you suspect things aren’t going to go Punch’s way.
In true vaudeville style, though, the narrative is broken up by a series of sketches in which the macabre characters from Punch’s universe go about their charmless lives; the dog forced to write the play’s script; the broke butcher saved when he gets an unexpected visit from a troupe of dancing pigs. Songs break out, with live music provided by the puppeteers.
The puppets are deliciously sinister; grotesque, malformed brutes straight out of a Victorian nightmare. The puppet masters play just as big a role, though; sad creatures unwillingly tied to their papier mache creations. Nick Haverson is particularly impressive as the Charlie Chaplain-style crying clown behind the Mister Punch. He moves with the grace of mime and has the comic timing of a silent movie star.
It isn’t all played for laughs though; at its heart The Devil and Mister Punch is a lament to a bygone age of entertainment. You’re given the impression that everyone who turned their backs on this noble tradition is in the dock alongside Punch. If productions like this end up dying out, we should all be found guilty.