The plantation owner, Mr Walker, is a gun-toting tyrant. His daughter, Rosemary, a hoity-toity minx. But when Rosemary falls for a poor young black man, true love and tragedy are entwined in a tale of spirits, skeletons and hi-jinx. It should be a carnivalesque silent movie version of Ghost or a Trinidad Romeo and Juliet with laughs, but something has gone badly wrong in the latest show from the usually excellent Told By an Idiot.
The ingredients are of the finest. It is directed by John Wright, one of physical theatre's greatest practitioners. It has design by Dick Bird, music by Felix Cross and masquerade design by Clary Salandy of the carnival group Mahogany. But something has happened in the cooking, because for the most part this family-oriented show is bland, unengaging and doesn't hit the funny bone.
The devising process may be partly to blame, but so is Bird's clumsy set of curved roads and skyscrapers, which sets the cast challenges they cannot overcome. Even getting the props on and off is hard work, and the community cast members are often left perched uncomfortably as spectators. But the main difficulty is that the story takes far too long to get going, and when it does it is not told with clarity or humour.
Until the final 15 minutes, when the music combines to good effect with the huge carnival puppets, this woolly show lacks the energy and joie de vivre a piece about death and dancing skeletons demands. The team need to go back to basics and put storytelling centre stage.
· At the Haymarket, Leicester, June 7-10 (0870 330 3131). Then touring.
