Produced by Original Theatre and currently playing at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. The Time Machine is a hilarious romp. It is based upon the pretext that the great great-grandson of HG Wells discovers several items belonging to his illustrious ancestor in a locked box in his auntie’s attic. These include items such as a ticket for a Take That reunion tour featuring Robbie Williams in 2025, that “proves” that HG Wells’s famous novel was not just a work of fiction but, that he actually built a Time Machine.
The play takes the form of a play within a play, and the actor playing the great-great-grandson Dave Wells (Dave Hearn) with his two fellow actors, set out to verify the time travelling exploits of his famous relative. In this they seek the assistance of a wide range of characters including Brian Cox, the Muppets and Queen Victoria. From time to time the play switches from the play within a play to the real time experience in the Park Theatre auditorium with the actors coming out of character, breaking the fourth wall and engaging with the audience.
After the interval, the play restarts except that the audience is now 20 minutes ahead in time of the actors. Using H G Wells’ Time Machine, or something similar, they try to undo the events of the first half which led to the death of one of their number. The play is extremely funny, and in the second half much of the laughter comes from the audience interaction as unsuspecting members of the audience are dragged into the action in various ways. It is a long time since I have laughed so much in the theatre.
Actors Michael Dylan, Dave Hearn and Amy Revelle were extremely good at high paced, comedic and physical theatre, which the play requires as well as fast costume changes. The play, written by Stephen Canny and John Nicholson, is well constructed, mixing the elements of play within the play, audience interaction, and the story of time travel. While essentially a very silly piece, the essential dilemmas of the idea of time travel, which has fascinated novelists throughout the years, of whether if you could travel through time, it would be possible to change present reality or future events is at the essence, of the play within the play.
The setting in Park Theatre’s 200 Studio has the audience on three sides around a largely bare stage, with a facsimile of an imposing marble edifice and a very large painted clock reminiscent of that in the that other great time travelling yarn “Back to the Future“. Such furniture or props which were necessary were wheeled on by the cast. Complex lighting changes and sound effects added materially to the overall effect of the production. It is not easy to stage production as frenetic as this one where timing is everything, but in this case, it was done to perfection. The actors take a big chance in extensive interaction with the audience and the script makes clear that the actors have to be prepared to improvise depending upon responses from the audience. This they did superbly on press night.
If you fancy a hilarious, barmy night at the theatre in this festive season, forget the Pantomime, go and see The Time Machine.
Playing until 30th December, https://parktheatre.co.uk/home
Reviewer: Paul Ackroyd
Reviewed: 5th December 2023
North West End UK Rating: