REVIEW: Mr and Mrs Christmas, Actually at Bridge House Theatre, Penge 2 – 6 December 2025
‘Good for drag comedy lovers’ ★★★ ½
This show perfectly illustrates the point I often make when I’m talking to students about reviewing. You have to set aside personal taste, prejudice and preference and assess the work objectively. For myself, I am not keen on drag comedy but am happy to acknowledge that Thatalie Girl and Brent Would are very accomplished at what they do.
Thatalie Girl gives us a diminutive Mr Christmas, clad in all the usual gear including a long white wig which she rather summarily tosses back over her shoulders every few seconds. Brent Would is a tall, glitteringly attractive Mrs Christmas in a startlingly curvy red trouser suit. It is Christmas Eve and they are welcoming the audience as guests to whom they sing, and with whom they play games. And, effectively, that’s the plot although there are references to their rather on-off recent history together. These actors work seamlessly together with a lot of very slick quickfire response,
The singing – most of the obvious Christmas songs are in – is rather good and comes with lots of innuendo. But most impressive is the improvisation. They set up a game with audience volunteers which is effectively like three dimensional consequences with the story line getting ever manically sillier and, my goodness these actors are good at thinking on their feet. And Thatalie Girl is impressively versatile, dropping into the right accent for the locations the audience randomly suggest and she really can sing in a wide range of registers and moods.
As the audience find their seats they are asked to write a quotation from a song, film, book or whatever. These are then put in a hat and Thatalie Girl and Brent Would create a silly drama out of randomly reading them so that the dialogue gets ever more surreal. The comic timing is excellent and at the performance I saw, the very raucous audience was almost hysterical with laughter.
There are some (very) lewd jokes in this show. Don’t take your young children or your prissy great aunt Jemina. But it all went down a treat with the audience I shared it with. And it’s excellent to see Bridge House Theatre full to capacity.
I rest my case. I didn’t personally enjoy it much but it’s a strong show of its type showcasing rich talent.
Mr and Mrs Christmas, Actually
Thatalie Girl (That Girl aka George Lester) and Brent Would (Francesca Read)
At Bridge House Theatre, Penge
2 – 6 December 2025
Box Office https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/mr-mrs-christmas-actually/
