An absurd and hilarious satire of noir starring a charming puppet frog detective
Film Noir Frog is a delightfully charming, absurdist character comedy focusing on the titular puppet frog detective in a parody film noir adventure filled with groan worthy puns, overly dramatic monologues and a character I couldn’t get enough of.
It’s a bite size show, coming in at around 40 minutes run time, but it uses this snappiness to it’s strength as it sticks to its comedic guns. The story is told largely through the film noir tropes of overly dark monologues delivered brilliantly by Tom Collett who manages just the right amount of self awareness in a script that heavily pokes fun at the genre and the shows own use of it. Different plot points, characters and situations arise in a brooding fashion and are turned on their head by the frog detective in absurd, funny and unexpected ways, leaving the whole audience in laughter every time.
His puppeteering and acting as the Film Noir Frog is an absolute highlight, the physical acting, voice work and the puppet itself creates a charming and funny (yet grimy) character that I could happily watch another few hours of. Tom however doesn’t carry the show solo, the supporting cast (Alex Baier, Katie Poole and Lucy Annalls) match his chaotic energy, playing a variety of characters like Morally questionable officer, and in one case Katie plays every character in a bar simultaneously to hilarious effect. I didn’t find the other characters as engaging or well written as Film Noir Frog but as the play is mostly explored through his perspective this doesn’t detract much.
Being a character comedy, it is carried by the main character but this isn’t a problem when the main character is so brilliantly written and acted. However if it wasn’t for that it’d be easier to see the flaws in the plot mainly the pacing and just somewhat interesting over arching plot. The former isn’t helped by the short run time, and the latter is paved over by the frog being a great character who makes every scene non stop laughter. It’s a scrappy, condensed show carried by a stellar main character who I cannot get enough of. For late night laughs it’s a sure hit if you enjoy absurd and silly humour, film noir or frogs.