Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier (Ed Fringe Digital)
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
(Edinburgh Fringe Digital)
★ ★ ★ ★
The untold side to the story of Aladdin’s Jafar and how he went from a selfless royal advisor to a man desperate to make things right again…
Everyone is familiar with the story of the street rat Aladdin, probably more so from the 1992 hit Disney film. In the story he falls in love with a princess, finds and rubs the lamp which enables him to be granted three wishes thanks to a Genie. Thanks to his help he defeats the evil Jafar’s plans to overthrow the Princess’ dad off the throne, wins the girl and they live happily ever after.
But what if we were able to see another side to the story and in fact Jafar was misunderstood all along? Was he just a selfless royal advisor that wanted to make things right and Aladdin wasn’t in fact the good guy after all?
Luckily thanks to the production Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier we dig into those questions and go on this alternative journey.
This production is nothing in comparison to the family friendly Disney film from the 90s. In fact foul language is injected into the script throughout, making this show definitely one for the adults. Although if you are as old as the film this will be a welcome joyous production for you to dig into, especially when there’s some reference to other popular Disney characters involved too (and even some guest appearances too!)
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier is directed by Aiden Carson, with the script and lyrics by Kaley McMahon. This production is bold and laugh out funny, who would have thought a joyous song about how the villagers would like to kill Jafar would have you laughing out of your seat. It’s cleverly crafted, even managing to include a strong ballad number. A J Holmes work on the music executes this well for this bonkers musical.
The performance from Eoin Callaghan as Jafar enables us to warm to his character, bringing out his more sensitive side towards other people. He has great stage presence throughout and has built the layers of his character well. Molly Hewitt-Richards has gorgeous vocals and aura about her as The Princess. Taking on bringing a different perspective to Aladdin is Conor Headley who is superb at doing so.