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Review: Heads Will Roll

Date: 09/11/2016

Experimental theatre company Told By An Idiot will leave the audience wondering a number of questions by the time Heads Will Roll is over. Like ‘was Eldorado really that bad?’; ‘can I get a toilet with a telly on top?’; and ‘what the hell was all that about?’.

In fairness the audience has been warned. With a story based on the mythical El Dorado, a Colombian tribal chief who covered himself in gold dust and threw himself into a lake, the production takes various detours through a retelling of the myth.

So the four members of the all-female cast sidestep into the genesis of the equally ill-fated BBC soap of the 90s and…. well, we’re not sure. There’s quite a lot of shouting in Spanish, running around and fruit. The audience may have looked baffled, but they also enjoyed whatever it was that was unfolding on stage.

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The cast assume and cast off numerous roles and sustain a breakneck pace throughout Heads Will Roll’s 80-minute running time. Music from Alicia Martel manages to be moving and funny, while Patricia Rodriguez, Andrea Pelaez and Mercè Ribot juggle roles, costumes and buckets. Literally.

If one scene doesn’t hit the mark there’ll always be another along within a minute. And while not everything hits the mark there’s plenty of laughs in Heads Will Roll. It also feels like a good fit for the Everyman, which feels like it has occasionally wrestled with its identity following its 2014 refurb.

Told By An Idiot’s riotous South American adventure feels like the right kind of risk to take – for the theatre and the audience.

Heads Will Roll
Liverpool Everyman
Until November 12

Images: Helen Murray