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The Crack Magazine

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The Fit Prince at Live Theatre

The only thing I love more than a romcom is a romcom parody, and The Fit Prince - or, The Fit Prince who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here), to give it its full title - is nothing if not pure, take-the-mickey, camp, queer silliness.

The King of Swedonia is dead and the prince is set to inherit the throne - but only if he can find someone to marry. Enter Aaron Butcher, the baker from New York who's focused only on his career and definitely isn't looking for a man. When he's commissioned to bake a cake for the Swedonian royal wedding, he finds himself (literally) bumping into the prince himself. You can guess the rest.

The Fit Prince had quite possibly the most characters I've ever seen in a two-man play thanks to a variety of digital cameos and, of course, a lot of audience participation. The sense of joyful community in the room every time another volunteer stepped onstage with a silly outfit made the show even more fun, sometimes feeling more like playing with friends than watching live theatre, and this was in no small part down to the way the charismatic leads, Linus Karp and Jospeh Martin, made everyone on stage feel like they were made to be there. From hilariously mismatched doppelgangers to the missing members of the pop group BAAB (bearing no resemblance to a similarly named Swedish act), every audience member gave it their all.

It's a holiday romcom spoof with all the chaotic fun you'd expect from Awkward Productions, but a whole lot of heart too. Throughout the series of increasingly bizarre and incredibly hilarious sketches that are sometimes only loosely tied together by the brilliantly cliche romance, I found myself rooting for these very silly but very lovable characters. I laughed till I cried, then smiled till my cheeks hurt, and I can't wait for more from this talented team.

Lily Tibbitts

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