Kill The Beast proudly presented Don’t Wake the Damp in the Aldridge Studio at The Lowry for the second of two nights before heading off to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show is wonderfully produced with fantastic projections by Izaak Pardey and Ali Clarke. This was well supported by fantastic lighting effects from Elliot Griggs.
Set in 2035 the show centres around an old TV show Galaxy Crusaders with the Crystal Consortium featuring Captain Carismo played by Max Wanakin and his sidekick (co-star) BOOBS a robot played by Juniper Berry. With Fuzzbot and Carismo’s arch nemesis Night Void, in episode 122 The Trouble with Tentacles.
Firstly we have a quick clip of The Smelly Detective and Doris Small physic medium. Before the creepy bureaucratic Terry Brambles of the Council calls on Mrs Berry in her humble futuristic abode in Vertigo Heights.
Following checking her holographic letters Terry gives Mrs Berry an hour to leave before moving to other residents of the tower block to tell them to leave also. We find Mrs Berry and Devlin Plaque waiting to start a residents association meeting. They wait for Sue Goggins the head of the residents association to arrive – but she never does.
We are soon introduced to Lexi who along with June (Juniper) Berry and Devlin Plaque take Terry Brambles hostage as the seek answers to why they need to leave because of the damp. As the hostage situation moves along we keep being taken back in time to when June played BOOBS.
The Damp in the basement is so funnily portrayed by the cast and the show moves along with plenty of wit and innuendo all along, intermingled with cleverly positioned screens for the projections taking you from the basement to Mrs Berry’s flat.
Whilst in the basement Mrs Berry and Devlin stumble across the key to getting rid of the Damp.
On returning to the room in Juniper’s flat the 4 characters need to hatch a plan to get rid of the Damp as they have no other way of getting out.
Will the plan work? Who will be the hero / heroine? Well you’ll just have to buy a ticket to this fantastic show when it returns to The Lowry in late October following what I am sure will be a successful time at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Want to know more about Kill The Beast? They can be found at www.killthebeast.co.uk on Facebook as killthebeasttheatre or on Twitter @kill_beast.
The show stars the talents of David Cumming, Clem Garrity, Natasha Hodgson, Oliver Jones and Zoe Roberts. If you enjoy the work of Kill The Beast you can support them with a monthly membership from just £1.
For a small production show it is slick, funny and well put together, with plenty of technical complexities that bigger shows would be proud of. Definitely, a company to watch for coming to The Lowry again, and easy to see why they are multi-award winning.
Kill the Beast were formed in 2012 and I am sure will be running for many years to come if tonight’s show is anything to go by.
Reviewer: Cory Coxon
Reviewed: 16th July 2016
North West End Rating: ★★★★★
