The Polka’s seasonal show for primary school kids is Christmassy in the way ‘Die Hard’ is Christmassy – that is to say ‘Crackers’ is set at Christmas, but it would work just fine if it wasn’t. It’s a knockabout 90 minutes of fun, in which characters incidentally sing Mariah’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’.
Still, it is pretty convenient that it concerns a family with the surname Crackers: Mum (Amy Loughton), and her kids Joe (Andy Umerah) and Maia (Sera Mustafa).
They live in a flat above their ailing family pet shop, and as the play begins it’s Christmas Eve and mum has announced to the family that they’re going to have to sell up. The kids are devastated, but Joe is resolute: he’s going to get to the bottom of the old family legend that his great-grandfather came into possession of a priceless diamond necklace, shortly before he died in the Blitz. Fortunately, Joe’s surprisingly spry 100-year-old grandmother Erika Poole is over, and with her help the kids proceed to rip the flat apart looking for clues as to the location of the jewels may have been hidden.
It’s a fun, big-hearted romp, and the key is in the subtitle ‘a family farce’ - the best moments come from physical business, be that Joe tearing into Liz Cooke’s set, or just some good old fashioned trouser dropping. For younger audiences – ie most of the audience – there’s also tremendous fun from Napoleon, a puppet rat who pops out of various nooks and crannies of the flat and causes general diverting mischief: puppet maker and designer Michael Fowkes is clearly the MVP of Nicky Allpress’s production.
The thing about farce is that there’s a big difference between the pro game and the lower leagues, and ‘Crackers’ simply lacks the all-out physicality that comes with ‘true’ farce, and there are stretches where not a lot happens in that respect. It is completely understandable that the Polka isn’t going to splurge National Theatre-doing-Moliere levels of cash. But at the same time it feels a bit underpowered next to what it aspires to be, and while a five-year-old is unlikely to have seen much Moliere, they might have laughed harder at a big panto. It relies on the rat to make up for a lack of truly great physical setpieces: but the rat delivers.