This musical satire about “foreigners” could not have a more timely opening week, commencing its critique just as Suella Braverman uses a nature metaphor – there is not quite a river but a hurricane apparently on its way – to whip up anti-immigrant anxiety.
Here, though, we are in “Britaim”, a fictional nation run by the tyrannical mayor of “Londom”, Lord Villain (Vikash Bhai), who wants to deport Dame Foreign (Fabrizio Matteini). The latter is juggling zero-hours jobs (“I’m so tired I barely have the time to steal your benefits”) and fighting to keep her daughter, Zara (Aliya Roberts), and their cow, Visa (Amanda Vilanova), in the country.
Alongside the jokes, songs and audience participation, there is a meta-narrative thread in which the actors also play themselves as immigrant actors putting on a panto – one of whom is having their own Home Office drama around leave to remain. But despite its politics and potent timing, this unseasonal non-pantomime does not quite work, possibly because Shani Erez’s layered script is so ambitious in the complexity of its ideas – ideas that require far sharper and more sophisticated execution than they get. Even allowing for the meta schtick of apparently amateur actors putting on under-confident performances, rearranging the cardboard-cutout set and dropping malapropisms into the script, this feels like a rehearsal rather than the finished thing.
Under the direction of Marianne Badrichani, Sarah Goddard and Erez, the first act is like a bargain basement version of The Play That Goes Wrong. The second half becomes more serious, with the theme of deportation chiming both on and off stage. But it is a tricky play to pull off for its doubleness and the performers, unfortunately, do not bring any of it to life. Meanwhile the script is too obvious, delighting in phrases such as “mind the gap” and making jokes about the British habit of talking about the weather.
There are some weak singing voices too, which fail to lift the more infectious numbers, and many of the punchlines lack punch. There are glimmers of a better script in the making and some song lyrics that contain bite, but overall this show could have afforded to wait until panto season to polish up its act.
• At Bold theatre, London, until 28 October
