Commencing its first UK tour, Four Felons and a Funeral has opened at Birmingham Hippodrome. Following the road trip of four dysfunctional friends who steal their friend’s ashes, Four Felons and a Funeral is beautifully written new musical which has heart, comedy and queerness by the bucketloads. Exploring grief, loss, love and identity, this 75-minute musical is deceptively nuanced.
The story centres around best friends Millie and Wilf’s theft of their friend Charlie’s ashes and the chaos that ensues when these characters decide to honour their friend in style with a trip to Ireland. They are joined on their quest by Simon, Mille’s boyfriend, and Bex, Charlie’s sister, Wilf’s friend and Millie’s ex-girlfriend. These characters are exceptionally well-written. The book and songs ensure excellent characterisation happens quickly and within the first 30 minutes, you have a solid foundation of understanding for who these characters are, which is built upon successfully for the remainder of the show.
Millie, played by Robyn Sinclair, is complex picture of grief and how it can affect someone’s actions and impulsivities. Sinclair has a strong command of the character and offers a very believable portrayal of the varying emotional journey that Millie goes through.
Maddy Maguire plays Bex and has a very well-written character to help carve out a very nuanced representation of grief and numbness. Coping with the loss of her brother and honouring him in a road trip with her ex-girlfriend, Maguire’s performance is exceptionally layered and fully believable.
Conor Dumbrell has, perhaps, the toughest character to perform in a queer musical: the straight white man. The character is microcosmic of those in society who are had a lesser understanding of concepts surrounding queer identity. Dumbrell does an excellent job of being somewhat antagonistic and yet, being a character we come to love by the end of the show. His vocals are immense – his vocal power is exceptional and he shines in his solo and duet songs.
Finally, Gareth Moriarty gives a scene-stealing performance as Wilf. Exeuding camp, extravagance and flamboyance from the moment they enter the stage, Moriarty makes the audience fall in total love with their character. Undeniably, Wilf is the best-written part in the show – with witty dialogue, hilarious songs and a developed and realised emotional arc surrounding the concept of gender identity and society’s understanding and acceptance of this. Wilf’s character prompts much thought around the need to explain gender identity to those who are cis and there is room beyond the runtime of the show to explore this further. Moriarty shines with such a rich material and is a pure delight to watch.
Writer and director, Sam Woof alongside writer and musical supervisor, Math Roberts, have written an exceptional new musical. The songs pop, the dialogue develops the character, the storyline is immediately interesting. This musical has enormous future potential. My only criticism? The show feels very claustrophobic in its current length. The show could (and should) easily fill the length of a full 2.5 hour musical – and any issues I found with the piece would be resolved by extending it. For example, the penultimate song about grief feels like it needed further development earlier in the show to carry the emotional weight that it could. The writing is so strong, that I feel that when it comes back for its next iteration (and here’s hoping it does!) we get to see a longer musical. I, for one, will certainly be watching this musical for its next steps.
Overall, Four Felons and a Funeral is a deliciously queer new musical with personality in abundance and a solid heart that will captivate audiences. The theatre landscape is incredibly tough for new shows at the moment which means it’s all the more important to support shows such as this and companies such as GOYA Theatre so exceptional talent like what’s evident here can get an opportunity to breathe. This show deserves the love, attention and adoration of audiences and I hope it will continue with great success.
Four Felons and a Funeral plays is on tour – details here.
Photography throughout from Steven O’Gorman.
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