Play Review: Up Pompeii an eruption of laughs

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on February 17, 2023.

Senna the Soothsayer, played by Wendy Anderson, reads a possible future to Lucrio, played by Nick Kush, during Wednesday's media night performance of Medicine Hat Musical Theatre's production of Up Pompeii. The show opens Friday and runs through March 4. -- NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN

mccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

If Up Pompeii is a sign of things to come for Medicine Hat Musical Theatre, it’s a darn good one.

Based on the 1970s BBC farce, Up Pompeii features a delightfully rich cast including several new faces to MHMT, paired with smart direction and an uproariously funny script.

The set design, though simple, is used to impressive effect, consistently drawing the audience back into the courtyard of an Italian estate after each well-placed shattering of the fourth-wall.

Join servant Lurcio, played by Nick Kush, as he takes you through a day in his role of head slave to Ludicrus Sextus – a Roman senator hellbent on rubbing out all the sexual impropriety in Pompeii, of which he’s having none. What starts as a simple plan for a weekend of innocent debauchery quickly unravels into absurdity when a few too many spinning plates are introduced to the equation.

While many of the play’s innuendos and entendres are left unspoken or placed cleverly out of sight through the opening act, the sexual deviance spirals toward an explosive climax of splayed legs and spewing lava.

Kush puts in an impressive lead performance as Lurcio, but is at his best while being himself – often breaking the fourth wall to reveal the actor beneath the toga, engaging with audience and crew members alike. Lurcio puts the ‘A.D.’ in dad joke, so be prepared for some corny comebacks, because he’ll be on you if you miss the punchline.

Supporting Kush is a double-digit cast that features as many impressive performances.

Ludicrus Sextus, played expertly by Dave Cruickshank, drives the plot forward as the Roman Senator who has (or hasn’t) had enough of all the sexual deviance on display in Pompeii. Cruickshank’s immersive performance is a solid counter-balance to Lurcio’s fourth-wall breaking antics, and keeps the audience engaged in the plot while his head slave mocks everything from directorial decisions to dropped sound cues.

CJ Silver’s portrayal of Ammonia, wife of Ludicrus, contains just the right amount of over-the-top expression to nail the atmosphere of the play’s British-satire source material. Silver’s performance is one of several impressive debut outings MHMT has to offer with Up Pompeii.

Those new faces include Venus Rivers as Erotica, and Kerry Johnson as Corneous.

Rivers’ eye-rolling reactions and flippant teenage tendencies feel natural in their portrayal of Erotica, even with a stone tablet instead of a smart one.

Johnson is excellent as Corneous, particularly once things start to go off the rails in a wild second act that I can’t bring myself to spoil.

Stealing every scene she’s in with a contagious level of joy for the role is Wendy Anderson as Senna the Soothsayer, whose predictions of doom and gloom contain some of the play’s brightest moments. Anderson will also be a new face to many, appearing in her first show with MHMT in years.

The cast also features some relative newcomers to the local playhouse stage in Boden Broadhead and Sarah Latimer, who nail the conflicting vibes of their intertwined characters. Broadhead steps into a different set of sandals than his previous roles as the hormonal Nausius, but shines in the most awkward of ways, while Latimer’s portrayal of escaped slave Voluptua provides a stark contrast to Nausius’s naïveté.

The cast features a couple of more familiar faces in Shelby Haga as Suspenda, Peter Leeming as Kretinus, both of whom truly commit to the insane nature of their roles, while Mark Irwin adds an element of danger as Captain Treacherous.

This painstakingly inaccurate portrayal of life in pre-eruption Pompeii will keep you laughing with an unending barrage of quick-witted innuendos and a truly unhinged final act – but if you don’t want your kids to do as these Romans, it’s best to hire a babysitter.

Up Pompeii opens tonight at Medicine Hat Musical Theatre with its first of nine performances. The show also runs Saturday, Feb. 23-25 and March 1-4. All shows start at 8 p.m. Tickets are available for $40 each at mhmtheatre.com.