Death Ship 666!

Cross Hollywood blockbuster ‘Titanic’ with the film ‘Airplane!’, an Agatha Christie novel and Michael Rosen’s children’s book ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and you’d have something close to ‘Death Ship 666!’

It’s a fast-paced, rough-round-the-edges farce which follows multiple attempts to sabotage an already doomed boat on its way to the Bermuda Triangle. In the show’s framing device, Grandma tells the story of how she met her true love – the ship’s architect, called ‘Architect’ (see the pattern?) – on the vessel as it sank from both ends at once and everyone on board was chased by bears.

Box Step’s show is fun, lighthearted and mostly entertaining. It’s not particularly laugh-out-loud, though, and despite nice comic timing from a few in the cast – notably Carrie Marx as young sleuth Holly Hobby – often the humour relies too heavily on the actors’ ability to pull odd facial expressions.

Still, the troupe of six play a surprising number of characters, all with tiny, very quick changes of costume, which adds to the show’s enjoyable silliness. The quirky end number – a ‘Les Misérables’ mash-up – is also an unexpected treat and lifts the show just as it starts to drag.

As with most farce, the show is mad and manic, but doesn’t ever reach the heady heights of blissful comic joy the genre potentially offers.

By Daisy Bowie-Sell