Review: DIANA: THE UNTOLD AND UNTRUE STORY, Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, performed and directed by Linus Karp and Joseph Martin, takes the familiar royal narrative and gleefully sets fire to the history books. Hot off the back of a sold-out Edinburgh Fringe run of Linus Karp was Hit with an Umbrella, Awkward Prods’s prior offering is an affectionate, outrageous and gloriously ridiculous celebration of the People’s Princess.The fun begins before the show has even started, with a royal name generator greeting audiences on entry. I was rather excited to discover which royal title fate had bestowed upon me, although I have to admit I would much rather have been the ‘Iconic Duchess of Chaos’ than the ‘Sexy Goop Founder of Scotland’.

The classic Awkward Prods format is very much in evidence, with audience members once again being enlisted to play roles alongside a cast of film clips, puppetry and live performance. It is a formula which works brilliantly here, creating a wonderfully anarchic atmosphere in which nobody quite knows what might happen next. We meet Diana, played by Linus Karp, in her era of innocence before watching her courtship with Charles, represented by a cardboard print, and Camilla, who appears as an outrageous puppet harpy of horror, accompanied by an appropriately epic red glow.

Geri Allen who appears via film is exceptional as The Queen, commanding the stage with an overarching head of state level of poised control, while the production gleefully dismantles the traditional royal narrative around her. Diana is presented not simply as a princess, but as a supporter of the queer community, a charitable campaigner and a fashion icon.

And the jokes come thick and fast. There is the People’s Rose funding her Thorns, Diana being unshackled from the confines of royal life, and a wonderfully absurd alternative future in which the fateful crash is eliminated from the story altogether. Instead, Lady Di becomes an international woman of mystery. She wins multiple prestigious awards, becomes a Broadway star, invents PrEP and lives on to achieve even greater things. It is history as it never happened, but perhaps as we might have wished it could have.

The show combines drag, multimedia, audience interaction and puppetry with an abundance of queer joy, creating something which is as affectionate as it is ridiculous. Beneath the outrageous comedy is a genuine warmth towards Diana and the legacy she left behind. Particular highlights come in the form of the revenge dress and the brilliant ‘Friends of Di’ song, both of which capture the show’s ability to take something instantly recognisable and transform it into something completely unexpected.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story is not interested in giving us another retelling of a story we already know. Instead, it asks what might have happened if the narrative had been allowed to take a completely different, fabulously chaotic direction. It is funny, silly, inventive and full of heart, while remaining unmistakably an Awkward Prods production. Most importantly, it gives Diana the opportunity to live on, not as a tragic figure frozen in history, but as the extraordinary, glamorous and endlessly entertaining icon she has become.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story ran at Underbelly Boulevard on 26 September

Photo Credit: Courtesy of production