Nudity, fire and Nick Cage: An Appointment with the Wicker Man

Andrew Mickel8 August 2012

A spoof musical play about an am dram version of the seminal seventies horror flick? How could we resist?

The Wicker Man – the worst tourism advertisement for Scotland since the Gretna Green train disaster – is one scary film. An Appointment with the Wicker Man is the National Theatre of Scotland's spoof comedy thriller take on the horror flick. Few events at the Edinburgh Fringe are going to get listed in more categories than this.

Johnny McKnight, who plays Callum in the all-singing, all-horror, all-comedy production, answered a few of our questions, covering nudity, fire and Nicholas Cage. Never let it be said we don't know our audience.

(Read all our comedy in theatre features here.)

The play is a meta take on the original film: what affection do you have for the original?

To be honest, I didn't know the original until the offer of working on the show came through. After watching the film I was utterly bewildered at the prospect of how you stage a meta-comedic version of the movie. I found it, on first watching, unintentionally amusing, however, the ending still took my breath away. It moves from a Hammer house movie into something much more sinister and dark. That appealed to my sick sense of humour.

What else is the play about beyond the original movie?

I think Donny and Greg (the writers) have managed to make a loving homage to the movie. However, they've also been extremely clever in making it a show that can stand alone in its own right for those audience who haven’t seen the movie. The show is part-spoof, part-thriller, part-musical all served up with a lovely dose of comedy throughout.

Let's tick off a few comparison points with the film: how naked do the cast get?

I would have to try and use nudity as a way to sell a show, it's so cheap. There's full frontal female nudity with authentic seventies pubic area. Come check it out!

How wary do audiences have to be of FIRE in the show?

There is fire, of course, there has to be. The audience don’t have to worry though, we don’t set fire to anyone there (unless they give us bad reviews then all bets are off!)

And did anyone sit through the Nicholas Cage version for 'research'?

I know for a fact that about half the cast and production team have sat through it. I hold my hand up and say I didn’t. I heard he got put in a bee mask. That was enough to put me off renting it.

Greg Hemphill is a big comedy name in Scotland – how is that doing to pull in audiences?

We've had fantastic audiences so far. Greg has got a real following from his TV work but I think audiences will be really surprised by just how fantastic a theatre actor he is. You're going to see him like you've never seen him before.

What other comedy/horror hybrids have you taken inspiration from?

I think we've all got our own personal pick and mix variety of comedy that as actors we've brought to our parts. I wouldn’t like to say who I've personally stole from (I'll let you as an audience decide that for yourselves!)

An Appointment with the Wicker Man is at the Assembly Rooms until August 26 at 15:10. You can get tickets over here.