Rebus McTaggart
Written and performed by Richard Thomson. Directed by Mat Baynton.
Available for UK and international touring in 2009/10.
 This
brilliant character comedy introduces
Ecclefechan’s top cop Inspector Rebus McTaggart.
His guided tour
reveals the hectic schedule of McTaggart’s crime-fighting mission,
and how he deploys his crack techniques on the mean streets of his sleepy
Borders village.
This brilliantly observed character is particularly
proud of his recent promotion to the dizzy heights of Joint Deputy Temporary
Head Community Support Liaison Officer. It’s an important job…
With a wannabe Columbo as its star, the show reveals Thomson’s
impressive range as a character comedian, from stand-up style audience
interaction as Rebus and a song-and-dance routine in the bearded guise of
Evangelos,
to the brilliant physical comedy when doing his wordless turn as
the police
hound.
Having built his reputation through regular appearances in
sketch and stand-up shows at the festival and on other stages around
the UK in
recent years, this solo debut confirms Thomson as an exciting
new face in the world of character comedy.
At the Edinburgh fringe 2007, a new show – Rebus McTaggart: CrimeWarrior – premiered, and a successful UK tour followed, including a return sell-out visit to the Edinburgh fringe in 2008.
Reviews
Three Weeks - 5 stars
I've never experienced anything quite like this before. It's mockingly sexy, it's naughty, and it's hugely entertaining. There is no end to this man's talents; artist, puppeteer, mime artist, singer, police officer, sir and of course first rate comedian. I was completely blown away by his mime stage fighting that was so mind bogglingly in time with the awesome sound effects, I have to urge you please to go see this show and not only for this. Stripping into drag, you'll get more than you bargained for, especially in the front row - me and my companion realised we'd had our hands over our mouths, jaws to the floor for quite some time. He's fighting crime as well as indulging in a little necrophilia.
Metro - 4 stars
Glaswegian character comedian Richard
Thomson gives not one but several standout star turns in this inventive
and cheeky one-man show. It's based
around the corrupt, kid-hating, lap-dance-loving, no nonsense Inspector
Rebus McTaggart, and the audience takes a guided tour around the life
of a crime fighter in Ecclefechan.
'Crime is a beautiful word, but an
ugly thing,' barks McTaggart. He keeps the streets clean of scum,
using his own blend of brutality for
the thugs,
and silver-tongued charm for the ladies.
It's a tight, punchy script
penned and performed by Thomson, whose previous screen credits include
the cult hit Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. Never
dropping a line or missing a trick, the incredibly quick-witted
and adaptable Thomson
deserves to become a big hit.
The List - 4 stars
You would be forgiven for thinking, given
the name, that Richard Thomson’s
first solo Fringe offering was a questionable play on Scotland’s
great fictional sleuths. His ‘hilarious’ amalgam
of gritty DI stereotypes might have been played out for a
UK Gold audience,
employing all the subtlety
of Robbie Coltrane’s Cracker stubbing out trademark
snouts on Hamish Macbeth’s Aberdeen terrier. In reality
the Glaswegian comedian combines, if you can forgive the analogy,
the tragi-comic
narcissism of Steve Coogan
with the fumbling charm of Simon Pegg into a wholly new and
original rozzer routine, namely Ecclefechan’s newly
promoted Rebus McTaggart welcoming what he perceives as his
latest
recruits to
the force.
A natural and charismatic character comic, Thomson
employs simple, straight-faced punnery, participation and
faultless
timing to
draw the audience into
the Joint Deputy Temporary Head Community Support Liaison
Officer’s
wickedly ignorant stance on police brutality, road safety
and terrorism. Three further
farcical but recognisable creations vary the pace and allow
Thomson to further flex his comedic prowess, and as his assured
presentation
of these gleefully
absurd situations approaches its zenith, it becomes increasingly
apparent that Thomson is sure to soon break free of the beat
and into the national
psyche.
The Stage
In the fairly limited world of character-based stand-up,
Richard Thomson’s
creation of this self-satisfied and totally un-PC police detective
(in charge of terrorism and lost property) must rank high. In the context
of a supposed
lecture to police cadets, Thomson’s McTaggart deigns
to share his wisdom and expertise while leering lasciviously
at
every female
in the
audience and
exploiting every opportunity for a quick and crushing ad
lib. His audience rapport is instant and strong, as is shown
when
he sets
up the idea of
a coffee break
and then later goes offstage for a costume change and the
sound of pouring gets a laugh.
Thomson alternates the detective’s
appearances with other characters, a Greek psychologist with
a thing about chickens and a female police
artist whose
sketches all look the same, but only his sniffer dog, exposing
half the front row as harbouring drugs, really works as well
as McTaggart.
At
this performance
Thomson gave a particularly impressive demonstration of his
quick thinking and comic agility when, for a bit involving an audience
member onstage,
he happened
to pick a very unresponsive patsy and still made the sequence
work
hilariously.
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