Gwyneth Goes Skiing – Pleasance, London

Writers and Directors: Linus Karp and Joseph Martin

Of the celebrity court cases of recent years – Wagatha Christie, Johnny Depp, Britney Spears – it is that of Gwyneth Paltrow that is the most absurd. Accused of knocking down a retired optometrist while skiing in Utah, Paltrow was an icy presence in the courtroom in 2023, seven years after the accident took place. Even though she was acquitted of any wrongdoing, it is her aloof demeanour that is at the heart of Awkward Productions’ amusing parody now playing at the Pleasance after the show was previewed just before Christmas.

Linus Karp, in an excellent long blonde wig and wearing a pink jumpsuit, plays Gwyneth as a frosty pantomime villain. Always eager to drop in the name of her lifestyle company, Goop, which, of course, was ridiculed for selling vagina-scented candles, and the titles of her most successful movies, Gwyneth is an insufferable bore, and Karp sends her up marvellously.

Playing the other villain, Dr Terry Sanderson, is Joseph Martin with a mop of grey hair (all his own, apparently). Sanderson is also a drag, shouting every few minutes and full of himself. And yet, compared to Gwyneth, one can’t help feeling a smidgeon of pity for the doctor who claimed he was brain-damaged from the skiing crash.

There are some very funny moments as the two meet at Deer Valley, and even more in the second half of the show when the court case is performed. But Gwyneth Goes Skiing is never quite funny enough. The show’s blurb promises some adult humour, but it feels mainly like end-of-the-pier stuff and, overall, the jokes are a little too safe. Some skits are repetitive and outstay their welcome, and the show could do with compressed into one act, sans interval.

But Karp and Martin are such natural and generous performers that it’s impossible not to admire their portrayals of the odd pair. As the characters argue and snipe upon the ski-slopes, Karp and Martin make sure that their own personalities are visible too, ensuring that they, as well as the audience, are in on the joke.

There is some audience participation, too, but the pair knows how to pick their ‘victims’ down to a tee, with one young man stealing the show with his portrayal of Gwyneth Paltrow’s former boyfriend and now husband, Brad Falchuk. Even though the show starts at 7pm, Karp and Martin manage to create a late-night cabaret atmosphere which is almost frenzied by the time it finishes two hours later.

With little more than an apple on the end of a fishing rod, a cut-out life-sized deer, a few hand puppets and a wind machine, Karp and Martin cleverly demonstrate that a DIY aesthetic can pay dividends if done correctly. There’s a certain charm about the whole show that is driven by the performers’ charismas.

Awkward Productions has already given us the parody of Princess Diana, The Untold and Untrue Story (which will return this spring), and we can only hope that Linus Karp will soon don a new wig for another queer and satirical spoof. We wish you well.

Runs until 16 February 2024