#EdFringe – Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch – Review
★★★★★
Fat Rascal’s greatest offering yet is a fabulously sassy, feminist, body positive retelling of Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
© Matt Cawrey
Once again, the spectacular comedic timing and versatility of performers is on show again in Fat Rascal’s new show at Edinburg Fringe, Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch. Disney villain, octo-woman, plus sized icon – but what if instead she was in fact King Triton’s true love, and the whole plot of The Little Mermaid was a plan concocted by them to teach Ariel her true worth and value, and show her her power as the future ruler of the Sea Kingdom?
Fat Rascal flip the classic tale on its head and present Ursula as the rightful love of Triton and a powerful feminist icon who takes no-ones shit and who sticks to her guns and who she is without compromise. When Triton comes a-calling 20 years after he didn’t chose her to be his bride (though he wanted to, but King Neptune had an evil plan), asking her to mentor and guide his young idiot daughter Ariel, she
Kiss the Girl becomes a consent anthem (Ask The Girl), there’s a song about being a nasty girl, a song about all the deep dark sea creatures who didn’t make it to Disney, and Part of your World is now an extreme horny sex anthem. The show takes aim at Disney’s lack of role models for girls and the lack of ambition Ariel displays, and shouts loud and proud that there is no dick in the world worth giving up your power and agency for. Plus, Ursula is VOUGING. This show has absolutely everything and I am absolutely living for it.
© Matt Cawrey
This show has just so much energy and sparkle, and perfectly parodies the Disney musical style. Puppetry, brilliant costumes and a sparkly set, this show feels a lot more well rounded that Vulvarine and with so much more energy, and perhaps because it’s a familiar story line that already exists (with a twist), an even better show again.
Performances by the same dynamite cast and creative team shine again. Robyn Grant as Ursula is the standout with her incredible voice, fabulous feminism and strong comedy timing, which may come from her being one of the co-writers of the show. You can see how much passion she and the team have poured into this show. Allie Munro makes a dynamite Irish Sebastian, Steffan Rizzi is unmissable in his glitter beard as Triton and Katie Wells is the perfect simpering idiot as Ariel. Jamie Mawson rounds out the brilliant cast, who also play a variety of roles and smash through costume and character changes faster than you can believe.
I’ve just discovered that Fat Rascal have even more magical parody musicals in the works, so the call to action is even louder – keep an eye on these guys, follow them online and flock to their high quality, funny and equality positive musical works – they’re catchy, they’re witty and intelligent, and they’ll leave you beaming from ear to ear. This is probably the best show I saw at Edinburgh and I cannot wait to see where it goes next.
Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch played at Underbelly – Bristo Square until 26th August. More info. #UnfortunateMusical
Keep an eye on what Fat Rascal are up to - https://fatrascaltheatre.com
