Gang Bang by Hughie Shepherd-Cross. Seven Dials Playhouse, 1a Tower Street, London WC2 until 01 March 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Louis Patten.

Gang Bang by Hughie Shepherd-Cross. Seven Dials Playhouse, 1a Tower Street, London WC2 until 01 March 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Goes with a bang!”

After seeing this the chances are you will never be able to look The Godfather or any of those Mafia movies in the face ever again. Don Lambrini (Freddie Trenholme) arrives by mistake in Blackpool – his cruise ship has sailed there not Florida – and sets about establishing himself as the Godfather of the North abetted by his son Jack (Fabian Bevan) and his hench-person Al Dente (Hannah Johnson). The jokes come thick and fast, there is quite a lot of audience participation – this is one of those sit in the front row at your peril shows – and the mafia genre of story is sent up with some style. Possibly the jokes come too thick and fast as not all of them get the response they deserve – you can have too much of a good thing – but Freddie Trenholme has a whale of a time playing the Don and his assassin Frey Bentos. The Don's corpse is indeed a sight to behold. Gang Bang was a hit on the Edinburgh fringe last year and is now getting its deserved stint in London. Director Auguste Voulton has kept things moving so that the occasionaly sticky moment when a joke has not quite hit home passes in a flash. The cast come on all guns blazing and carry on like that for the rest of the performance. It is silly but fun. At the end the gang leave for their homeland – or so they think. No spoilers but another city will never be the same agan. Out of the pool and into the sea you could say.

Cast

Fabian Bevan – Jack

Hanna Johnson – Al Dente

Freddie Trenholme – Don Lambrini & Frey Bentos

Creatives

Director – Auguste Voulton

Sound Designer & Composer – Finn Heathfield & Will Cox

Lighting Designer – Aaron Razinski