EDINBURGH 2012: BWW Reviews: UNMYTHABLE at the Zoo Venues' Monkey House, August 5

There is one thing I'll say against Unymthable, where I was sitting the music was sometimes a bit too loud and drowned out bits of the singing. This is a real shame as the songs of Barbershopera’s Rob Castell were witty playful or at least what I could hear was. And that's it, there's not one other bad word I have against this phenomenally entertaining hour of a 'children's' show.

This show is Horrible History-esque, and personally I can't give higher praise than that - I am a huge fan. From their excellent take on the Trojan horse to the brilliantly shambolic story of Persephone and Hades there was no filler it all had its place.

Set around the voyage of the Argos in its quest for the Golden Fleece the audience is called upon as the Argonauts and this only adds to the fun. This setting also gives an entertaining glimpse of the 'other guys', not the heroes but the ones who were around when great things were happening. Those guys never do get the credit they deserve!

If you haven't got kids to take along then steal/borrow some. If you can't be bothered doing that you should still go, I was amazed to see that the adult numbers far outweighed the children. One of the great charms of the show is that young and old were thoroughly entertained.

The three strong cast of William Pinchin, Troels Hagen Findsen and Paul O’Mahony are the absolute key to this show as props and effects are minimal. Each one of them takes on dozens of roles, sometimes as quickly as the changing of which hand is out in-front. They deal with the changes brilliantly, voices, expressions, moods all instantly snap from one character to another and back again. I hope that they can keep this level up for the whole of their run; it must be exhausting.

The venue – The Zoo Venues’  Monkey House – had a slight issue with what I thought were greek style pillars that were part of the set sometimes blocking one’s line of sight. I later found out these are part of the venue, there really was no set to speak of. The non-existent set and the scant use of props I thought was surprising for a show of this nature but they really carried it off.

Needless to say, I thought it was fairly good and bordering on the perfect way to see the Greek myths. The show is running most days at quarter to two, full details can be found at http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/unmythable. My hope is they’ll be back next year with something about the Norse myths…a boy can dream!

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