Grief is an experience that we all have to endure throughout our lives, and everyone deals with it completely differently.  Four Felons and a Funeral takes a look into a grieving friendship group who have lost their friend and brother, Charlie and decide to steal his ashes from the family home to take him on one last road trip to Dublin.

Writer and Director Sam Woof has created a wonderfully rich story dealing with relationships, homophobia, transphobia and at its centre, loss.  It’s a reflective look at how we all deal with losing someone special.  The cast of four worked tirelessly throughout this 70-minute musical.  Maddy Maguire (Bex), Gareth Moriaty (Wilf), Robyn Sinclair (Millie) and Conor Dumbrell (Simon) worked as a team throughout, and it was clear that the camaraderie between the quartet was strong.  Each performer put their own stamp on the subject matter and created characters who were believable and easy to fall in love with.

The set, by Sony Smullen was predominantly bare, with four wooden blocks depicting the seats inside their ‘getaway’ car, and six upright strip lights (Chris McDonnell) which were cleverly used throughout the show and had a real impact during certain moments.  Be warned, however, that if you are sensitive to bright flashing lights, this may be a trigger for you, but these moments only last for very short outbursts.  There were a few moving pieces of set as the group of friends ventured to ‘Chester Services’ on their journey which were wheeled in and out, but I felt like they didn’t need anything else as the story really is the star of this show.

Musical Director Isaac Adni sat to the side of the stage and played a lone keyboard under one spotlight, bringing a fairly stripped back sound to the musical. The songs however, sounded quite repetitive through their melodies and pacing, and it was hard to differentiate between one song to the next.  One standout song though, was ‘I’m Fine’ performed by Maddy Maguire as the grieving sister of Charlie who was finding the whole situation tough to deal with, understandably so.  She was able to portray emotion through this song which certainly stuck in my head after the show had ended.

Wilf, played by Gareth Moriaty was a character who provided equal measures of pathos and humour in their performance.  Moriaty displayed an impressive range of emotions when having to deal with their non-binary status and having to explain themselves and their reasoning for being a they/them.  This is a very relevant subject in today’s society and these moments were dealt with sensitively and respectfully.

This show garnered many great reviews during its run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and I can understand why.  There is definitely scope to flesh this musical out into a full length show as I came away wanting to know more about each characters back story.  With perhaps a few adjustments to the songs, I have no doubt this will be a show to keep your eye on and I’m so grateful to places such as the Birmingham Hippodrome for championing new work and placing them on a stage for us all to enjoy.

This show was reviewed on the 26th September 2024 at the Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome where it runs until the 28th September 2024. Tickets and more tour dates can be found here: https://www.theatregoya.com/four-felons-and-a-funeral

Review written by Emma Rowley

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