The Fit Prince: Good, silly fun for the festive season
The Fit Prince, now showing at the King’s Head, is a completely unhinged mash-up of Christmas rom-coms, fairytales and puppet shows.
Coming off the back of a well-received run at the Edinburgh Fringe, The Fit Prince – whose full title actually reads “The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here))” – unites audience participation, singalongs and grotesque puppets for a very silly 70 minutes of queer, panto-infused comedy.
This is the third show put on by Awkward Productions (Linus Karp and Joseph Martin), who have garnered a cult following thanks to their previous work, Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story.
The concept for the Fit Prince is established from the beginning. The King of Swedonia has died, and the queer prince Eilan (played by Karp) must marry before Christmas – just two weeks away! – to stop the kingdom from being forfeited to the king of Finlandia (boo!).
Eilan has video calls with a number of royal suitors, but finds himself drawn to the baker flown in from New Yoik, Aaron Butcher (played by Martin). They go on an adventure through Swedonia, falling in love along the way, and then have to resist an attempted coup from Eilan’s doppelgänger. The Swedonian people avoid a fascist dictatorship – but only just. It’s truly bonkers.
Adding to the chaos is the fact that, apart from Karp and Martin, almost all of the other characters are selected from the audience at random. Lines appear on a teleprompter, but the audience members are also frequently put on the spot, whether that’s adding a catchphrase or delivering a presentation about Swedonia’s economic performance to Angela Merkel.
For me the star was Gerta McMurder, a giant puppet operated by Martin. McMurder runs an orphanage for Swedonian children, and has a surprisingly soft-side, but the prop itself is fantastic and her movements are operated perfectly by Martin.
Karp and Martin, who got married on the stage earlier this year, clearly love doing the show and their enthusiasm is clear throughout.
Some other characters, including Swedish singer Tove Lo and Sebastian Croft from Heartstopper, appeared on videos during the play, although it was difficult to hear them at times. As the play progressed, I also found myself increasingly groaning rather than laughing at the jokes. There’s always a lot of energy and a lot of fun, but I’d hit my silliness threshold.