Writer: Howard Coggins and Stu Mcloughlin
Director: Craig Edwards
London theatre brings you many things; grand dramas performed by living legends, innovative new plays showcasing emerging talent and the chance to ensconce yourself in lives, cultures and experiences you’ll never know first-hand. Sometimes, it also brings you a rock duet involving a recently departed Virgin Queen on electric guitar while her Guns ‘n’ Roses-esque successor James I performs air guitar on his knees, this is Elizabeth I – Virgin on the Ridiculous.
Arriving at the King’s Head Theatre for a fortnight, Howard Coggins and Stu Mcloughlin’s new show is a bizarre but affectionate panto romp through the life and reign of the very first Elizabeth as she deals with marriage proposals, Scottish plots and Spanish threats, all the while prevented from marrying the man she truly loved and trying to navigate the politics of her court.
Living Spit have made quite an art of historical soap opera, bringing their show The Six Wives of the Henry VIII to the King’s Head in 2020 and were rewarded with an Off-West-End Award nomination. The style is much the same as Coggins and Mcloughlin focus on Henry’s daughter Elizabeth, a zany sense of humour, plenty of anachronistic pop culture references and some delightfully silly original songs.
And they certainly inject their subjects with warmth, removing the grandness of their status and the historical distance to make Elizabeth I and her menfolk feel like real people, grounding them in the comedy of everyday interactions. True love Sir Robert Dudley becomes ‘Bobby’ taking care of Lizzie’s My Little Pony and conveniently disposing of his tiresome first wife – leaning into a theory about Dudley’s involvement in Amy Robsart’s death that scholars continue to argue over – Frances Walsingham returns as a shadowy Milk Tray Man while Mary Queen of Scots conducts the Babington plot via the lyrics to Agadoo.
Some of the best moments are in song, all specifically composed for the show with hip hop artist Walter Raleigh returning from the New World with a Bloomingdales bag, a potato and a duty-free carton of cigarettes. But there are meaningful moments too, not least a sweet duet in which the Queen and her favourite realise and declare their love as well as a glorious summarising rhyme for the Armada – ‘boats and guns and a right palaver’.
This irreverent take on history cannot quite sustain its energy or its inventiveness all the way through however and a late segment with the Duke of Anjou falls a little flat, it’s only gimmick the French accent that does little to advance the story while the ensuing Privy Council scene attempts some slightly laboured audience interaction.
But Mcloughlin as the Virgin Queen and Coggins as everyone else are great theatre-makers, breaking down barriers with the audience using asides and meta interruptions to talk to the crowd directly which creates an inclusive atmosphere. It’s all nonsense but a lot of fun, and you’ll see Elizabeth I in a whole new light.
Runs until 12 March 2022
