Writer: Richard O’Brien
Director: Christopher Luscombe
The show begins before you enter the theatre. Many of the audience members will be wearing fishnet stockings and suspenders, bustiers, tight gold budgie-smugglers, gold lamé jackets and top hats, and black ghoul outfits. You can only hope that they’ve got their own transport and make it home without incident. If you don’t know the precise location of the theatre, just follow the feather boas… To quote one of the songs, ‘Don’t dream it, be it!’, and lots of the audience do!
This is clearly a show with long-term fans, and there are plenty of them. The show was written in 1973 as a fringe theatre event, and has basically been running ever since. It’s been performed in over thirty countries, in 20 languages in front of 35 million theatre goers – many of whom, on this evidence, will be repeat participants.
If you’re a Rocky Horror virgin like me, the crazy plotline (not sure there is one really) and the pantomime like action and choreographed cod-reactions can leave you wondering where on earth you are. The answer is that you’re not really on earth, you’re in the company of an alien (a transvestite from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy Transylvania) who’s succeeded in creating the Sonic Transducer, “an audio-vibratory physiomolecular transport device” capable of “breaking down solid matter and then projecting it through space and, who knows, perhaps even time itself.” See what I mean?
Within that madness, the premise is simple – a young couple’s car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they stumble into the castle of Frank N Furter (Jason Donovan), a ‘sweet transvestite’, who has created his own dream man (Rocky) and is bent on sexual pleasure. Suffice to say that the couple are changed forever. It’s clearly a parody of the science fiction and B movies of the time. If you enjoyed them back in the day, you’ll probably love this. You’ll have lots of fun if you leave your critical faculties at the theatre door, pinch a boa from one of the theatre goers and just surrender to the saucy silliness.
Credit must go to Nathan Caton, the Narrator. In this production, only the Narrator and Frank N Furter respond to the multiple heckles from the audience. And there are lots of heckles, which some might find rather tedious. But Caton has a cutting put down for every-one, revealing his background as a stand-up comedian. He is utterly unfazed, and very funny, commenting that ‘this is crazier than a Coldplay concert’! Donovan is reprising his role as Frank N Furter from over 25 years ago, and he brings a slightly world-weary loucheness and swagger to the role. Special mention to Arthur Janes, who took on the role of Rocky in the absence of Morgan Jackson performed seamlessly and well.
The scenery and staging are perfectly 1970s sci-fi – we’re just missing Captain Kirk and the clingons – simple, cartoon-like cut outs of cars, castles, monitors and – gloriously – an upright bed with pink silky sheets and pillows. The music is rousing – Sweet Transvestite, Damn it Janet, and most notably of course, the anthem Time Warp, which gets everyone on their feet, throwing their arms in the air and pelvic thrusting to the beat.
Subtle it is not, life-changing it is not, but if you’re up for an evening of over-the-top inuendo and camp sexuality, this could be the show for you.
Runs until 9 August 2025 and on tour until July 2026
