Breaking Bad finished – finished – ten years ago. But such is its cultural impact that it feels fresh, relevant and a go-to text for students who were still at primary school when Walter White was machine-gunning Nazis from the boot of his car.
Molly Dineley and Evie Holloway have tapped into this rich seam of referentiality to create a high-concept hybrid which sounded so beguiling when I read its blurb (‘When Chemistry PhD Walter White is threatened with expulsion over unpaid fees, he turns to drastic measures…’) that in a toss-up between Hamlet at the Keble O’Reilly and Breaking Bod at the Pilch, there was really no contest.
And I wasn’t the only one. I’ve never seen the Pilch so full. We were packed in literally like pilchards. I counted 75 in the audience. And since the tickets were for some reason about a third more expensive than usual shows at this venue, The Mollys Production Company will be making a profit, if not of Heisenbergian proportions, then at least enough to fund another show. Well done to them.
But was it any good?
The audience, which was made up almost entirely of current Oxford students, certainly thought so. They loved it. They laughed at the jokes, they screamed at the end, they were living proof that knowing your audience is a vital part of being a successful writer. The script constantly mentions aspects of Oxford life, from a running joke about ‘doing it for your family – well, college family’, to digs at the reputations of individual colleges. Every mention of Pembroke or Lincoln brought gales of laughter; every time the characters went to Atik or Plush it was a cue for unrestrained hilarity. But I couldn’t help feeling these were low-hanging fruit. Just mentioning a reference doesn’t automatically make it funny (for me at least). Better were the gags that cleverly brought together the worlds of Oxford and Breaking Bad – for example the fact that Walter’s famously coloured meth is known as ‘Oxford Blue’.
I was put in mind of Starkid’s world-conquering parody A Very Potter Musical. What made that great was that it had a genuinely strong and accessible plot of its own, original songs that were actually good, and (perhaps most important) a deep knowledge and love of the source material, so that it could brim with detail and insight at the same time as having fun with the mockery. By comparison, Breaking Bod felt a bit too much like a JCR Christmas Panto, where the fun comes from rolling on a theme like a layer of Dulux, then dotting it with references that your captive audience will get an endorphin rush from recognising. True fans of Vince Gilligan’s outrageously brilliant drama will find only the broadest of outlines here, and the way they have been translated into the Oxford milieu doesn’t always seem to line up with events in the TV show (for example, Saul Goodman being elected President of the Union, or Walter bursting into his own version of 'I'm Just Ken' from The Barbie Movie).
One topic that seemed to produce especially appreciative laughter was drugs (the driving force of the original TV show). In my innocence, I was surprised at the knee-jerk feeling of recognition that ran around the crowd whenever a character mentioned coke. I’m aware that in this particular review I’ve already dug myself a very deep hole with a sign reading ‘Caution: curmudgeon at work’ at the top. But I do hope these undergraduates are looking after themselves.
In summary then, if you’re a student out for some fun before heading off for a night of debauchery, you’ll love Breaking Bod. If you’re a theatre purist heading off to write a review, you might finish the evening wondering what the Keble Hamlet was like.