The Grinning Man Review: filmed at Bristol Old Vic

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/grinningmanldn/

This is a busy weekend: one the same day I saw The Last Five Years, Bristol Old Vic launched another one of their screenings, which it has been doing for the past few weeks. The only other one I have been able to see out of all they have released is A Monster Calls (which they co-produced with the Old Vic), and that was amazing! 

This show is one that I had heard about, but not had the chance to see when it was on stage, just like A Monster Calls. And the praise it got from my WhatsApp friends made it one that I needed to watch in what I knew was/is going to be a very busy week of screenings: The Grinning Man. 

Based on The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo, this small-scale musical is written by Carl Grose, with music and lyrics by Marc Teitler and Tim Phillips - it premiered at the Bristol Old Vic before moving to London's Trafalgar studios, gaining a WhatsOnStage nomination for its cast recording in the process. 

Who is Grimpayne? The mysterious grinning man who lives in the fair grounds performing his story to paying spectators night after night? And how did he get his hideous smile....?! Grimpayne makes it his mission to find out. 

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/grinningmanldn

As you would expect, this show is very dark: in tone, lighting, costumes... It also has a sense of the macabre about it, and can be rather creepy, especially in the opening. You do sometimes wonder what you're watching in the beginning, as it is rather confusing. One minute it gets really depressing fast, the next, it turns into something like an adult Horrible Histories:

"You look like a cockroach having a wank!" one character says to another.

 But the more you watch, the more you stick with it, the better it gets!

Louis Maskell (Flowers for Mrs Harris) delivers an extremely moving performance as Grimpayne - to bring another Victor Hugo comparison in, there is something Quasimodo about him, disfigured and hurt, but also driven by his search for the truth, and the vow he made when he was a child to "kill the one who crucified my face". The make up on the said face is wonderfully creepy in itself. 

Audrey Brisson (Amelie) almost unrecognisable as his love interest Dea in a blonde wig and contact lenses. Dea is blind, but ironically, the first one to really see Grimpayne's true beauty. 

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/grinningmanldn

The other person I need to mention is Kelly Jago, who is the Puppet Supervisor - the puppetry in this is incredible! There's some shadow puppetry at the beginning of the show as part of the fair attraction (play within a play I guess), and then some wooden puppets similar to those they use in the Lion King or Dr Doolittle - but made as if they had come out of a child's twisted nightmare - and I loved them! 

Young Grimpayne was puppet-ised, with Maskell providing some of the puppetry and also the voice, and even though it was a puppet, it still felt human and innocent. You felt his pain at the start of the show, and also during flashbacks as he starts to slowly remember pieces of what happpened to him. 

But my favourite has to be what they did with Mojo, the wolf owned by Grimpayne and Dea's father-figure Ursus 😍😍😍 I would love to have a dog like that!!!

If you are looking for a new show to sink your teeth into (hehe), and are a fan of shows such as Les Mis, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Sweeney Todd, then I think it would be worth giving this show a chance. It takes its time to get going, but once it does, you'll be sold! 

You have until Friday 3rd July to watch The Grinning Man. To do so, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqdjO3UUU3k

You can find out more about The Grinning Man on the Bristol Old Vic website including where to get the cast recording.