Fat Rascal impress once again with Tom and Bunny Save the World at the VAULT Festival
“Tinder’s not working, Deliveroo too”
With their last couple of shows (BUZZ and Beauty and the Beast), Fat Rascal really have established themselves as a company to watch, delivering musical comedies with a fresh and feminist bent. So I was keen to see their latest show – Tom and Bunny Save the World – in the final week of the VAULT Festival.
Seen in Edinburgh last summer and now embarking on quite the UK tour, Tom and Bunny… sees them turn their hand to the underserved zombie apocalypse folk musical genre (who knew?!). And as our titular heroes flee London for the safe haven of t’north, their hopes of survival depend on, well, how many zombie films they’ve seen so that they can borrow the advice!
As you may have guessed, there’s a strong amount of tongue-in-cheek about the show. Robyn Grant’s book cheekily pilfers from all across the zombie oeuvre but also works in its own vein of quirky humour. The WI come in for a bit of ribbing and there’s pointed reference to how your class often dictates how you cope in a country in crisis.
In a festival set-up, short and sweet is always good but there is the sense of this show just stopping rather than really building to a climax. The tease it then offers feels like a bit of a copout , less hungry for a sequel than dissatisfied at the abrupt end to this story. That said, there’s wit and melody enough here to entertain for an hour and I suppose it is a good thing to leave us wanting more.
