This is part of a series of shorter reviews from Edinburgh Fringe, August 2024.
“Potty the Plant”, from Little Big Stack, is promoted as a dark comedy musical and has received rave reviews. Unfortunately, it is not receiving a rave review from me. The humour feels forced, the jokes are nothing new, and the music is annoying.
The main premise of the show is a potted plant called Potty (Baden Burns) that lives in a doctor’s surgery. The doctor in question is the evil Dr Acula (Hudson Tong) whose favourite task is taking blood samples (see where this is going?). The show starts as I expected, seemingly child-friendly, with Sesame Street vibes, as Potty wakes up to a brand new day, saying good morning to the sun and finding lots of things to enjoy in his life. I was expecting the show to quickly go into “Avenue Q” territory of adult humour, and whilst it dips its toe in the waters of adult humour, it doesn’t quite push the limits as far as one would expect, coming off as quite tame in comparison to other, similar shows.
The main storyline involves Potty trying to thwart Dr Acula’s evil scheme with the help of three junior doctors, Mel (Stephanie Cubello), Steven (Thomas Ian Potts) and Dave (Zach Burns). Each of the doctors are fairly annoying and feel like they continuously get in the way of the plot. The main attraction of the piece should be Potty the Plant, but he is almost reduced to a side-character at times in favour of not-so-hilarious shenanigans involving the hospital staff.
Potty’s main motivation for taking down Dr Acula is to win the heart of Miss Lacey (Sarah Oakland), and I was looking forward to the direction they were going to take their relationship, expecting something akin to The Bee Movie. However, the relationship is quickly brushed aside as Miss Lacey refers to Potty as her “best friend” and the final dance number begins.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on this show. The audience clearly enjoyed it, and the five star reviews speak for themselves. I expect the show will continue to enjoy success in the future. It just wasn’t for me.
Tom Morley, August 2024
“Potty the Plant” plays at Gilded Balloon Patter House – Other Yin at 1:30pm until August 26th.
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