Review: Ministers Of Grace
Posted on: Thu 21 Feb 2019
By David Cavanagh.
With the tag line “Whom wilt thou call?”, this is a reimagining of one of the all-time best-loved movies as a play written by Shakespeare. The cast of UK actors throw themselves into their various roles with gusto. A nice touch is the actors in their Shakespearean personas, welcoming the (small) audience as they make their way to their seats. A minimal set; three screens which are cleverly used throughout, a table and a couple of stools, along with lighting effects, give the cast everything they need to ‘ghost bust’ in the 17th century. Oh! And watch out for the horses. There are, as you would expect, lots of nods to the two original Ghostbusters movies; the cast names, the various ghosts, slime and even… no, that might be giving too much away. It was also fun trying to identify all the plays from which dialogue was taken and mashed up by the cast.
One small criticism is that, at 80 minutes, the show is a little too long. Reducing the time to 60 minutes would allow a couple of sections that dragged to be tightened up. That said however, this is a production in which the cast is obviously having as much fun as the audience.
Ministers Of Grace – The Unauthorised Shakespearean Parody Of Ghostbusters runs at various venues until March 2. Check your Fringe guide for details.
