I must confess that I was never that into ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ when the show hit TV screens back in 97, although I was aware that it was a great and funny show through friends who enjoyed it. So when I got tickets to see ‘Buffy Revamped’ on stage at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal a particularly “geeky” friend, who I’ve heard sing Buffy’s praises many times before, was more than up for it.
So there we both sat; a relative newcomer and the seasoned Buffy fanatic in a full, busy and buzzing theatre moments before showtime. Glancing around we couldn’t help but notice we were surrounded by ‘millennials’, a generation to which we both proudly belong and the generation who were lucky enough to be teenagers and young adults when Buffy aired in the late 90s and early noughties. It was obvious that my friend was not the only Buffy geek in the house as quite a lot of the audiences’ wardrobe and makeup choices were in keeping with Vampirish themes.
On stage, a scene from Sunnydale school hallway perhaps with red school lockers on the left, book shelves on the right and a desk in the middle with a projector screen at the rear. All of which enshrouded by smoke drifting up from the stage floor gave us vampirish vibes for sure.
We had a general idea of the premise of the show: writer and producer, Brendan Murphy, bringing us the entire 144 episodes of Buffy as told through the eyes of Spike, the bleached haired, handsome bad-boy Vampire of the show. But none of us had a clue what a treat we were in for! Brendan’s energy was captivating as he burst onto the stage and kept us all spellbound for the entire 70 minutes of the show with no interval. Playing all the main characters, he re-enacted the plots of the episodes in a way which had the audience shrieking with laughter and smiling the whole way through.
Quickly ducking behind the desk and coming up in Buffy’s hair, or sliding into Angel’s long leather trench coat, even renditioning the audience with occasional songs, Brendan thrilled the audience with lots of funny jokes and satirical side-swipes at the show, a performance bursting with 90s pop-culture references. Needless to say it went down a storm with everyone in the house. A truly joyous show from start to finish and no wonder it enjoyed a smash-hit run at the Edinburg Fringe festival.
‘Buffy Revamped’ certainly left its mark on its audience. I haven’t laughed that much in ages! Go catch it if you have the chance! Bravo!
Review by James Toomey
Comments Closed