Review: ‘The Irish Giant’, Cartoon De Salvo, Southwark Playhouse, 22nd May 2012

Cartoon De Salvo combine the factual and the surreal to tell the stories of Charles Byrne, a ‘freak’ of Georgian London who enjoyed short-lived popularity showcasing himself as ‘The Irish Giant’ before dying drunk and penniless at 22, and John Hunter, the surgeon fascinated with abnormal body types and their posthumous dissection. The dank, dripping tunnels of the Southwark Playhouse Vaults are ideal for this production depicting the seedy, grimy underworld of Georgian London and the clandestine business of bodysnatching. Pleasingly living up to its namesake, the company frequently burst into live music, switch accents at the drop of a hat and project rudimentary cartoons onto the walls of its delightfully juxtaposing surroundings. Traditionally grim subject matter is transformed into an endearingly silly and creative package.

This being said, the performance is marred by frustratingly avoidable flaws. At 1 hour 40 minutes with no interval, the cod-Irish accent and over characterised twitching of Byrne lose their initially novel appeal, the same can be said of the clichéd cockney warblings of the chief bodysnatcher. The booming songs delivered with such gusto in the first half hour seem disappointingly hollow 90 minutes later. Such a project requires a sparky cockiness, an ‘up yours’ to straight-laced historical re-enactment. In this instance the performers lacked that energy, beyond all other confirmation were the dejected faces at the curtain call. I couldn’t help thinking that the frequently referenced laudanum bingeing may have been a useful tactic for raising a bit of pep.   

For such a likeable, dynamic company, I’d wager that low audience numbers was the damning factor on this occasion. Refreshingly different, yet a little plagued by its own self-doubt. It’d be interesting to see if larger audiences in the future trigger a more self-assured performance. 3/5.