Review: POLICE COPS: BADASS BE THY NAME, VAULT Festival

Tommy Dixon is an ordinary man who wants to live an extraordinary life. He's a telemarketer for a magazine company about tall things, his dad left him and his mother alone, and his stepfather talks to him with his butt. But Tommy's life changes when he meets Father Badass, a priest at St. Bartholomew with a big secret. He's a vampire hunter.

The leader of the vampires, the Devil, is on a mission. He wants to enter a portal from Hell to Earth in order to visit the city with the sweets he has yet to try - Manchester. Much of the Devil's motives are explained through classic musical theatre numbers and dramatic ballads.

One of the aspects of Badass Be Thy Name that makes it work is its simplicity. The costumes are simple and have accessories that enable the actors to easily transform into other characters like vampires and residents of Manchester. Actors put grey socks onto their arms and pretend they are swords while another person taps a metal chair to make sound effects. A chair is used as the sole setpiece to dramatic effect - "Just look at that chair!"

During an office montage, two actors with trench coats play a water cooler and vending machine, leading to some hilarious mixups and gags including drinking a Snickers bar. My favourite effect in the show was during a fight sequence. I won't go into spoilers, but there is a brilliant use of a Slinky in a fight against the Devil. Yep, it's that simple. There is also a brilliant scene that involves action figures, a cardboard box, and a zipline.

Police Cops claims to have "a shared vision of creating highly physical, highly entertaining and even highlyer clever comedy" and they certainly live up to that mission statement. There were times when I was in tears from laughter, including a reference to Lord of the Rings (the 1978 animated version, of course - this is the 90s!) that starts subtly and then grows into an all-out re-enactment of a scene. There is also a hilarious GCSE depiction of the Devil's origin story, complete with overexaggerated choreography and "The Real Slim Jesus."

There were some moments that could have been cut in order to expand a bit more on the storyline - I, for one, really wanted to learn more about Father Badass and the differences between Badass Church and Normal Church (and its normal bread)! Another aspect of the show that, in a strange way, both added and took away from the humour, was the amount of corpsing that took place. It was funny at times, but I began wondering if it was all scripted, taking away from the funniness of the moment. There is also surprisingly quite a bit of partial male nudity, particularly when it comes to the character with the self-explanatory name of "Bum Bum Man." While the reveal of the character was quite hilarious, it became uncomfortable at times to watch, especially from the front row.

Ultimately, Police Cops: Badass Be Thy Name is both brilliantly stupid and stupidly brilliant in a way that will leave you in tears of laughter while also questioning the sanity of those on stage. I look forward to seeing what shows Police Cops come up with next! And always remember - "Always remember: Badass Be Thy Name."

Police Cops: Badass Be Thy Name runs from 7 to 19 February with performances at 2:45 PM, 8:00 PM and 8:30 PM at the VAULT Festival in the Crescent at The Vaults

Photo Credit: VAULT Festival

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