From the author of Fifty Shades of Red, White and Blue and Dirty Dancing’ in Le Shebeen comes a Christmas comedy full of Yuletide hijinks. Slimmer for Christmas, Leesa Harker’s latest play is running at the Theatre at the Mill in Newtownabbey until 3rd January so there’s plenty of time to soak in this play’s Northern Irish humour.
The show sees Sami Salt (played by Julie Maxwell) trying to slim down for the festive season to snag a date with her boss Mark Bond (Cillian O’Sullivan), alongside the help of her eclectic group of friends Trish (Sarah Lyle) , Ally (50 Shades star Caroline Curran) and Gavin (Neil Keery).
Even before the play begins, the massive picture of a burger (topped with holly), giant can of coca-cola and ginormous chips that adorn the stage (and make up the set for the evening) set the tone perfectly. Big, brash, and way over the top.
To cut a long story short, this is a celebration of all the things you find cringe inducing and ‘scundering’ about NI, our language and our colloquialisms. The humour is coarse and the laughs come thick and fast, almost every line is a punchline and the rest of the audience which is mainly made up of 40+ women (I saw two men in total) are loving every second.
Now I haven’t seen any of Harker’s previous plays, or read her books as it’s not really my cup of tea (or in this case, bottle of lambrusco), so I was more than unsure about her latest venture. However, the set is great, very versatile – the chips move about to become various objects like scales, a desk, a dance floor and even a bed – and really sets the scene well, the 90s tunes played between scenes are great and the unadulterated use of Northern Irish slang had the audience in pieces, but try as I might I just couldn’t get into the spirit of things. That being said, the second half was better than the first, there are some nice moments, the cast got into it more and I actually found myself wanting to know how the story progressed and had a smile on my face at the end.
If you can’t make up your mind, you can view the trailer below; if this is your type of humour then you’re in for a treat.
Tickets and more information available here.
