Thor and Loki – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Roxy

Thor and Loki continues at Assembly Roxy until 26 August 2018 (not 13).

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Odin is a one-eyed piratical god – father of Thor (which not even his father pronounces to his satisfaction) and defender of Asgard. Loki is a giantess, and enemy of Asgard, yet she has sensitivity and yearning that sets her apart. As the tribes enter into a war to capture the tree with golden apples that guarantee immortality, a series of amorous and war-like encounters ensue.

So… Gods, families, power, lust and war – ideal ingredients to translate into musical comedy. In more capable hands, this could have been successful, but here we find a group of actor/musicians with varying abilities who struggle to strike the right notes throughout this piece.

Odin is portrayed as a champion boxer for some reason whereas Thor evokes a likeness to Michael Crawford – not as the God of musical theatre, more as Frank Spencer, and is eminently likeable. Loki is channelling Miranda Hart meets Maleficent in an awkwardly doe-eyed performance at odds with her hippy, vegetarian mother who, we learn, was Odin’s great love.

Two further cast members play a variety of roles which does not help to clarify a rather complicated plot that relies on the supporting cast rather heavily to define what is happening where.

All of the cast play a range of instruments and all are wired for sound in their singing. There needs to be a finer balance in the mix, though, as many lyrics are being lost. The standout number including tap dancing, Fosse-style choreography with bowler hats rejoices in stating: “Just because you’ve got a talent doesn’t mean you have to use.” Indeed so!

There is a budget ‘panto’ feel to this show which was clearly appreciated by some people in the audience whereas others were bemused about where the humour was. Not that it isn’t funny – some moments are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, but these are unsupported by a rather predictable script and score.

This could be remedied, of course, with more rehearsal and some judicious editing to create a tighter piece with more attention paid to the trajectory and the story to avoid false climaxes and strengthen the ending.

There is some promise here, but needs a bit more work to define, simplify and clarify what the piece is capable of becoming.

Fiona Orr