Mighty Boosh goes full circle

PREPARE to be entertained and bemused in equal measure by punks and yetis, monsters and zoo-keepers and two men - two different men - all thrown together in one psychedelic melting pot.

'Two Different Men. One Mighty Boosh,' reads the tag-line of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt's latest tour, which comes to the Festival Theatre next week.

It might as well read, 'Two Different Men and a gorilla, a mystic shaman, a Cockney hitcher, the Moon and Old Greg with his mangina,' as anyone familiar with the cult world of The Mighty Boosh, will tell you knowingly.

Yes, following the sell-out success of their live debut in 2006, Fielding (the one who looks like a 70s glam-rock reject) and Barratt (the other who could pass for a lumberjack from some long-lost Monty Python sketch) return to the stage with another mix of surreal music and adult comic mayhem.

Back with a vengeance are Vince Noir and Howard Moon, joined as ever by a profusion of characters from their hit TV show. See Naboo the Enigma dazzle with shaman magic; see Bollo the Gorilla take on the irksome evil Cockney Hitcher, and marvel at the worldly observations of The Moon.

What many don't realise, however, is that it was here, in Edinburgh, that The Mighty Boosh unleashed their alternative universe on an unsuspecting public.

In 1998 the pair introduced Fringe-goers to their signature characters, zoo-keepers Noir and Moon, for the first time – in doing so they secured the coveted Perrier Award for Best Newcomer.

"That was the first time that we ever tried to do anything ourselves," recalls Barratt. "We worked on it a bit in London and then we did it in Edinburgh and it worked very well."

It worked so well that they returned the following year with Arctic Boosh and again in 2000 with Auto Boosh, shows which established them as one of comedy's most innovative double acts and fast-tracked them from stage to screen via a six-part Radio 4 series called The Boosh, which charted the adventures of the young Vince and Howard.

In 2004 their TV break came when The Mighty Boosh premiered on BBC Three, proving so popular that it was repeated on BBC2 almost immediately.

Described at the time by Barratt as 'Mr Benn with beats', that first series found Vince and Howard working at Zoo-Niverse, where each week they embarked on an exciting magical, hilarious, adventure. The series was immediately recommissioned for a second series in which Vince and Howard left the zoo behind in favour of a flat in Dalston, where their mystical adventures continued.

"The transition from stage to TV was quite a big one, but the way we write never changes. We still have to sit in a room and hammer out the ideas no matter how famous we are. It doesn't get any easier," says Barratt.

"I think writing for TV came more naturally to me. Noel was always really into the live stuff and still is, whereas I always wanted to do film and stuff like that. So I felt more like I was coming home to TV. It was always what I wanted to do."

The pair actually met a number of years earlier when they were students, as Fielding recalls. "I met Julian while I was actually at art school, but he was doing American Studies or something. He was in a band as well, touring around Europe in some acid jazz band because he was a musician as well. He's really into the music side of it. And I play in a band now as well, so it's quite hilarious."

As with all the best double-acts, much of the success enjoyed by the Mighty Boosh is a result of the remarkable chemistry the 40-year-old Yorkshireman and his 35-year-old Cockney sidekick share. Again, it was in Edinburgh that they first discovered that they shared a symbiotic relationship. "Edinburgh was very important to us because that was the first time we ever worked together," confirms Barratt. "Before we did our own show, we were in one of Stewart Lee's called King Dong versus Moby Dick.

"Noel and I used to do a little bit of banter in the show and it was different every night. That was our first time on stage together, so that was where a lot of it started.

"That first time we worked together in Edinburgh, it was almost immediately apparent that we had a special chemistry," says Barratt.

"We weren't sure that it would because we both did sort of weird stand-up and thought that we might cancel each other out. But our particular types of weirdness fitted together quite easily and from the very first gig the on-stage thing between us was easy. Gradually as the years have gone by, we've come to realise just how rare that is."

That rare chemistry will be in evidence next week on the stage of the Nicolson Street theatre, bizarre, abstract and surreal . . .

As Howard Moon might say, "I do many things. I span the genres – they call me the genre spanner."



The Mighty Boosh, Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, Thursday and Friday September 12, 7.30pm, £25 (returns only), 0131-529 6000



A BOOSH UP THE ARTS: Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding launched their cult creations at the Edinburgh Festival back in 1998



Sex and Chocolate - a winning combination



liam rudden

Arts and Entertainment Editor

SEX and chocolate – a timeless combination. Just ask The MsFits. Every September, as the Fringe fades into history, there are one or two solo shows that go on tour around the provinces.

Most have a life of a few months, snapped up by small theatres around the country on the back of rave reviews. Few can boast the longevity of Sex and Chocolate, a sell-out smash for The MsFits on the Fringe way back in 2000.

Eight years later the play, described as 'a Shirley Valentine-style comedy thriller about life, love, mobsters and Maltesers' is touring again – next Thursday it pulls up at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh.

Written by award-winning playwright Rona Munro, and performed by award-winning actress Fiona Knowles, Sex & Chocolate tells Jan's story.

It's her 50th birthday and she's all alone. The rest of her office is off clubbing, the kids have flown the nest and it's a holiday weekend.

Faced with the prospect of defrosting the fridge, she makes a decision which will change her life forever . . . she goes on an adventure.

Instead of going home to an empty house and a carry-out, she sets off innocently into the night in search of a packet of Maltesers – luckily she has her passport with her because, almost immediately she is whisked away on a two-day binge that is guaranteed to make audiences laugh, cry and give up on their diets.

"Rona Munro's latest comedy drama for the MsFits is a grand tale of gun-running, roulette, hard shoulders and hot nights. It is pure, escapist storytelling of the kind that knows its audience. And in Fiona Knowles, she has the perfect storyteller," raved one reviewer when the play premiered.

It has since become one of Knowles' most popular one-woman performances, others being the hugely successful Secrets & Lies & DIY and The Good The Bad & The Botoxed.

Knowles and Munro's association dates back to 1986 when they formed The MsFits as a double-act, which toured until 1991, after which Munro gave up the performing side to concentrate on writing.

She is now one of Scotland's most successful playwrights with TV credits that include Casualty, Dr Who and BAFTA-nominated Bumping The Odds.

Her other plays for The MsFits include, Everyone's Gone To Dunoon, Granny Knot, Stick Granny on the Roof-Rack and Women On The Verge Of A T Junction.

"We get together in the summer and choose a theme," Munro once explained when asked about The MsFits working process. "Then we have another brainstorming meeting in the autumn, and sometime around Christmas I sit down and write."

It's a formula that, like Sex & Chocolate, and the double act that brought it to the stage, has proved a popular one.



Sex & Chocolate, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Thursday, 7.30pm, £10.50, 0131-665 2240 Please note: Contains material of an adult nature, suitable for 14+



DRIVEN WOMAN: Fiona Knowles stars in Rona Munro's play



Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet get musical shake-up



liam rudden

Arts and Entertainment Editor

WHETHER through John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft's 1935 stage portrayals, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn balletic interpretations of 1966 or Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes' hip reimagining in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 movie, there can be few unfamiliar with Shakespeare's tale of the young star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet.

Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the Bard's greatest romance was first performed a short time later by the Lord Chamberlain's Men who, it must be said would be unlikely to recognise Lothian Youth Arts & Musicals Company rock musical version of the classic, which premieres at the Church Hill Theatre, Morningside, this week.

RJ – A Rock Musical retells the romantic and tragic tale using extracts of the original text fused with modern songs, lyrics and an ensemble of 89 young people.

Two families, at war, are sent into turmoil when their children, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love and marry in secret.

Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, takes offence at Romeo's interest in Juliet and challenges him to a dual. Mercutio, Romeo's friend, fights on his behalf and is killed. Romeo, in a fit of rage, takes revenge and kills Tybalt. He is banished from the city.

Juliet is heartbroken and seeks council from the Friar who formulates a plan to re-unite the two lovers. The plan is foiled, however, by events and both Romeo and Juliet eventually take their own lives, thinking the other is dead.

Explaining the reason for choosing the piece, LYAMC's Carole Burnett says, "As it is LYAMC's tenth birthday, we were looking for something different and challenging which would allow the company to develop their skills through tackling a different style of show.

"RJ is a new musical and we liked the sound of the Shakespeare language, fused with modern music. We also liked the idea of costuming it differently.

"Romeo and Juliet has many themes running through it which are relevant in modern day society, for example the 'gang' culture portrayed through the relationships between the Montagues and Capulets.

"That is something which is still a prominent issue for young people today. By moving the show into a modern context it has also allowed the younger members who may not have studied Shakespeare to interpret the piece through the use of rock music and modern dance."

The Lothian Youth Arts & Musicals Company were founded in 1998 and currently boasts 120 members aged between eight and 25. Burnett reflects that, perhaps predictably, the text of the piece presented them with their biggest obstacle to overcome.

"The biggest challenge was definitely getting to grips with the language of Shakespeare, but luckily our musical director is an English teacher, and so was able to help with the understanding of it."

That challenge overcome, she adds, "This interpretation definitely makes it more accessible for an audience. It allows the audience to think about the language, but think about it in a modern sense with the music and costuming."

As Juliet never said, 'Rock me Romeo.'



RJ – A Rock Musical, Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm (matinee 2.30pm), £10, 0131-476 6945



ROCK ON: LYAMC's Craig Young as Romeo and Alison Corbett as Juliet