The Kings of Comedy, La Navet Bete, are back! For lovers of comedies like Fawlty Towers, Bottom and The Play That Goes Wrong, Oh Zeus! is a riotous, all-out hilarious ride through Greek mythology.
When the stability of Olympus is threatened by the marriage of Zeus’s daughter Hebe to a mere mortal, the King of the Gods hatches a plan to derail the wedding. Three actors play 40 characters in this mythical farce through Ancient Greece, the Underworld and back. Expect sensational physical comedy, outrageous jokes, fast paced chaos, and more togas than you can smash a plate at.
We sat down with comedy writer and director John Nicholson to learn more about the show
What can you tell us about Oh Zeus!
I think Oh Zeus! Is the most ridiculous show I’ve worked on in my 30 years of making comedy theatre. It’s not based on any existing Greek God story/myth, however it takes elements of what might be known about some of the major players and runs with that. The story takes place on the day of a wedding but ends up in the Underworld. If there is a message within the bombardment of fun, it’s that psychopathic men like Zeus (insert the name of contemporary political leader here) should no longer have a place in the world.
Oh Zeus! is a fresh take on Greek mythology. What inspired you to explore this particular story?
We wanted to choose a title and source material that audiences would recognise. However, we didn’t want to be restrained by storytelling. We wanted to explore how one predicament might lead to the next and how the chaos in that process could build. In fact, the story we’ve written has a lot of twists and turns - because it’s very important for good comedy that the dramatic stakes are always high. The characters need to be under pressure at all times. Extreme pressure if possible.
 |
| John Nicholson |
How have you developed your creative ideas for the piece?
I had in fact already created/devised a show about the Greek Gods some years ago, so I had some knowledge of the source material. Also, there are loads of good podcasts, radio programmes and a recent Netflix series (called Kaos) that we listened to and watched. In addition, I had kept hold of a great book from childhood called Gods and Monsters. It explains the highlights of the best-known stories really clearly. There’s obviously loads of material available on-line too. So when writing we would google questions like ‘What’s the maddest thing a Greek God ever did?’ and then go down rabbit holes and share ideas (between the 4 of us who were writing the script). Of course, it probably goes without saying, that all the stories about Gods are entirely fictional. Like all books about the thousands of different Gods that have been written over the centuries, people made the stories up in order to try and make sense of the world. All religious stories change and evolve and steal from each other over time.
Three actors playing 40 characters sounds ambitious. How do you manage to get them to convey such a broad spectrum of personalities?
Le Navet Bete are a company of actors who are not fazed by anything they are asked to do by a director. They are willing to try anything and are always positive about new ideas and have inexhaustible energy. For example ‘would it be funny to catapult a baby into the audience?’ But the company also have loads of resilience to run physical comedy sections over and over and over again until they get the pace right to ensure it’s funny. Making funny theatre is much harder than making tragic theatre. Any actor will tell you that!
Between them, the three actors are playing about 20 characters, but we obviously don’t want the audience to be confused at any point. We ‘audition’ each character and I’m harsh about saying things like ‘Try a different accent, walk like a horse, imagine you’re Margot Robbie on drugs,’ or whatever it might take to release a way of making the character distinctive.’ Often I’ll say ‘That’s rubbish,’ or I’ll ask whoever else might be in the room working on the show ‘Is that funny?’ You’ve got to be ruthless.
What can audiences expect in terms of humour and style from Oh Zeus!?
My influences are The Marx brothers, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, The Young Ones, Reeves and Mortimer, Steve Martin – that territory. It’s anarchic, carefree and, I hope, joyful. For me, it’s more about harnessing the spirit of stupidity and pleasure as opposed to pretending that things have gone wrong. I want audience members to feel like they want to be in the company of the 3 actors on stage simply because they make them feel happy.
Le Navet Bete has a strong reputation for creating memorable productions. What sets Oh Zeus! apart from your previous works like Dracula: The Bloody Truth and King Arthur?
Quite simply, it’s the most stupid, the most inventive and probably most expensive!? of all their shows to date. There’s a great surprise in every scene. It’s honed and crafted (for maximum bonkers), to within an inch of its life. And importantly to mention - it’s a whole team effort. An amazing team of designers, makers, composers, writers, Stage management and access creatives have agreed to embrace the stupid.
Your productions often blend chaos with brilliant storytelling. How do you strike the balance?
Ha. Funnily enough, we were discussing this the other day on a break. It’s actually very intricate and detailed storytelling – we really obsess over individual lines and how to get the rhythm of them right, but still push the story forward without sounding expositional. And make the dialogue funny! We want the audience to care what happens to the characters but not to care about the story. In other words, we want them to feel the plight of the character but not to become concerned that they may have missed a plot point. In short, we have to be super rigorous with ourselves. If we’ve been clever with the story telling, no-one will comment on the story because they’ll just be laughing. If we’ve written it badly, they’ll notice the story.
Finally, what do you hope audiences take away from seeing Oh Zeus?
We want to make people laugh and for the 2 hours to have passed effortlessly and joyfully. We’d also secretly like it if people feel we’ve been witty with the ideas – i.e. taking a small piece of information that people might recognise – i.e. Zeus is taken to eating people and is also wildly promiscuous, and then using that to do something surprising/outrageous. Mainly, I’d like audiences to feel like they could bring literally anyone they know to see this show.
Oh Zeus! tours the UK with dates through 2026. For more information and for tickets visit https://www.lenavetbete.com/current-shows/oh-zeus
Post a Comment