Review: The Strange Affair of Paul, Hen and Chickens Theatre

Camden Fringe

I’ve never watched The Traitors, not the original UK one or its Australian sibling. So a show about a contestant from this Aussie version of a show I’ve never seen may seem a rather odd choice of Camden Fringe viewing. But thankfully, any expert knowledge required of the TV show is unnecessary, with everything you need being carefully fed to you very early on.

So what do you need to know? Mostly that Paul was a Traitors Australia contestant and yet hardly figured in any of the aired content. Instead, he would pop up in backgrounds, or the back of his head would be seen as the camera panned over him to focus on another contestant. So weird was this lack of airtime for one contestant that the internet did what the internet does best, starting countless conspiracy theories about why it may have been: perhaps he’s a CIA operative, or he’s said something unrepeatable, or maybe he’s since committed some heinous crime? But the fact that this fringe show is endorsed by the real Paul should tell you all you need to know about how it approaches its subject matter and its ability to poke fun without ever being mean. 

Enter Callum Jones, and The Strange Affair of Paul, his investigation into the truth about quite why Paul suffered this fate. It’s a cleverly constructed show, told as a film noir. with Jones playing Sam Marlowe, a 1950s style American detective, resplendent in trench coat and trilby. And it’s full of all the language you expect from such a character; there’s certainly a lot of “dames” being thrown around! 

Jones plays it lovely and straight, making his corny lines and that outdated language even more enjoyable as we laugh greatly at how bad it is. Equally as impressive is his timing, perfectly in synch with the many video clips playing on the screen behind him. The use of the screen is fantastic, at times playing filmed scenes to drive the story along, at other times displaying the fruits of his investigation; social media posts, stills of contestants, email exchanges. These exchanges between Marlowe and the TV show’s production company have a real Joe Lycett vibe going on, as he uses them to show his frantic efforts to find answers, whilst the whole obsessive nature of his “investigations” is reminiscent of Dave Gorman.

If there’s one complaint about The Strange Affair of Paul, it’s Jones’ American accent. As much as the film noir style gives the whole show its distinctive feel, Jones does need to work on that accent, and even more on his insistence in making a strange hissing sound after every other sentence! It soon becomes not just a distraction but a slight annoyance! It either needs toning back or even a complete overhaul. The whole show could easily be reworked into a totally different detective genre, anything from Sherlock to Death in Paradise. In some ways It may even improve the show further, opening it up to a wider audience with a more modern and British take?

But accent niggles aside, The Strange Affair of Paul is still a show I’m sure will delight audiences with its obsessive nature and ability to just not take itself too seriously. The clever writing brings to life this rather strange story, and come the end, with his attention turning to the American Traitors, you do almost hope he might consider a follow up already. 

Written, directed and produced by: Callum Jones

The Strange Affair of Paul has finished its run at the Hen and Chickens Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe. You can find out more about Callum Jones here.