King’s Theatre, Edinburgh – until 2 October 2021
Reviewed by James Knight
3***
The phenomenon that is Mischief returns after the mayhem wrought by various Plays Going Wrong with an anarchic look at the most relatable subject: growing up.
Groan Ups follows the lives of five individuals over three different periods of their lives. We first meet the group at age 6, performing ‘What I Did at the Weekend’ for their school assembly, and the characters are firmly established from the off. Bossy, spoilt Moon (Yolanda Ovide) takes charge of the presentation immediately, while hyper-active corridor-fouling ‘terror’ Spencer (Dharmesh Patel) leaves everyone trailing in his wake. New kid Archie (Daniel Abbott) is doing his best to fit in, while still showing off his intellect – he can say ‘gauche’ and proclaims himself to be precocious – and poor Katie (Lauren Samuels) just wants everything to run smoothly. Which leaves damp little dweeb Simon (Matt Cavendish) to tell us that all that happened on his weekend was that he got nits.
They’re all simple enough characters, easily recognised from the classroom, and the play uses that to its advantage. Relationship dynamics shift around swiftly – by the time the cast ages up to thirteen, we have a rife love pentagram going on. Seeing adults play children is nothing new – see ‘Flint Street Nativity’, later re-imagined for Edinburgh several years ago as the ‘Costorphine Road Nativity’ – and writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields wisely shift the second act to school reunion night so the actors can play their own ages, even if they don’t act them. Moon is now ‘actualising’ a restaurant with the help of Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book and Simon, the drippy little hanger-on, is now a big businessman – in urinal cakes – and so badly wants to let everyone know how much of a success he is that he’s hired ‘Chemise’ (a criminally scene-stealing performance from Jamie Birkett) to play his girlfriend.
Mischief is known for its farcical hijinks – and there are plenty of laughs to be had with over-sized sets that gradually get smaller as the characters age up, wordplay a-plenty, and the sheer carnage of class hamsters meeting untimely deaths (RIP Rodent Keating). Unfortunately, the play falls down when it tries to deal with weightier issues. The main drama comes from Spencer being held back a year and how it affects the rest of his life, but the handling of how that came to pass is fumbled, and a revelation for one character (easily seen a mile off) comes across as badly misjudged. Dealing with closeted sexuality and self-loathing is a difficult and complex issue that deserves more time, weight and nuance than the writers allow it here, and it leaves a sour taste.
Overall, Mischief could do better: B+