Interview: Demi-God Meets Belgium Detective at Camden Fringe

The Camden Fringe Interviews

Jack Dalton discusses Hercules: Myth And Murder!

Sometimes an idea comes along that’s so great you wonder why no one has ever done it before. You know what we mean, the perfect combination of two things to create something even more amazing; like chocolate hobnobs! Now we’re not saying that thaeatre group We’re Gonna Be A Dad‘s combination of the Roman mythical character Hercules and Agatha Christie’s Poirot is as great as chocolate hobnobs, but well… The only way to surely find out was to open our own Poirot-esque investigation and track down producer and performer Jack Dalton to ask some probing questions.

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Hello! My name is Jack Dalton and I am the producer and one of the performers of Hercules: Myth And Murder! It’s an hour-long comedy musical that mixes the demi-godly might of Hercules, and the wit and intrigue of Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

We are returning to The Hen & Chickens for the first half of our run (29th July -1st August), which is where we had our sold-out shows back in February, so we’re thrilled to be invited back. We’ll also be hosting two additional shows at a new venue to us, The Camden People’s Theatre, on the 19th & 20th August. We’re really excited to see how Hercules plays in a new space, and look forward to adapting it for the latter half of the run!

Hercules: Myth And Murder! follows the titular detective, as he investigates a potential threat on the life of the Police Commissioner, that takes him to the most exciting, and dangerous, place on Earth – The World Chess-Boxing Competition! The show plays host to numerous famous detectives and pop-culture characters that come along for the whirlwind adventures of our hero. Gripping drama, chess-boxing rap battles, and recently choreographed and highly unplanned dance breaks: this show has it all!

In the show, I play 13 out of the 25 characters, so it’s been a real challenge keeping each one feeling unique – and getting into costume! My ‘main’ role is that of the imaginatively named ‘Inspector’, who very much does what he says on the tin! Every famous sleuth has their police liaison, so it’s really fun getting to mash together so many entities I know and love so well from some of my favourite franchises – very much a Japp/Lestrade/Stottlemeyer/Gordon amalgam…minus the gorgeous moustache, which crime-solving staple we’ve saved for our Belgian protagonist.

I was (and still am) very grateful when our incredible writer/director, Xavier Fawcett, offered me the roles, as this is my first return to performing since before the pandemic. All of the cast went to The University of Warwick together, so we’re a really tight unit. Sophia Holmes, Charlie Sharpe, Ed Ramsey, Xavier and myself all performed together in numerous musicals and improvised shows both at uni and at the Edinburgh Fringe, and Hercules has given us an excuse to show off how well we work together. It’s been a joy working on the play for so long now with each other, and I think we’ve really pushed ourselves to milk every single piece of humour out of Xavier’s brilliant script.

The madness of the show has been the best way to dust off the cobwebs and get back into acting on stage; the show is purposefully manic, and was a huge point of positivity in our first run (‘Operation Mincemeat mad’ according to LondonTheatre1!).

Having said that, we’ve taken on the feedback from our February run, and have added even more musical numbers and scoring for our Camden Fringe shows. The wonderful Ed Ramsey, a fellow multi-roling member of the ensemble and our original pianist, is being backed up by a new member of the troupe – Finlay Stafford. Having a pianist on stage with us at all times has really brought the whole piece together in new ways, and is helping to maintain that frenetic energy we have (and mask our plethora of split second costume changes).

We had never really planned for another set of shows; we were happy just getting together as a cast and putting something on its feet. However, we exceeded our own expectations with a 4-Star review and multiple sell-out shows, so getting the chance to tread the boards again with this group is a pleasant surprise! I think we’re a lot more focused on the direction of the show after Camden Fringe, and We’re Gonna Be A Dad is gearing up for more projects!

Hercules: Myth And Murder! was made with one goal in mind – to make people laugh. We’ve had a renaissance of stupendous, dramatic shows following lockdown, helping us to reconcile and reconnect with one another after that awful time, but our mission with Hercules however, is to help bring us together through laughter. The unapologetic silliness of the show is what drives it forward, and we are firm believers in the medical uses of laughter.

We hope you come and see us solve this hilarious, Herculean-mystery, and enjoy watching it as much as we enjoy putting it on!

Thanks to Jack for taking some time inbetween practicing his 13 characters to chat with us.

Hercules: Myth And Murder! plays as part of Camden Fringe at Hen and Chickens Theatre, 29 July – 1 August, and Camden People’s Theatre on 19 & 20 August. Further information and tickets for both venues available here.