A Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes review, Tricycle Theatre

I'm gonna show you what God can do: just fifty dollars and watch me heal the Hell out of you... we have ATMs at the back and a check cashing booth... So begins our introduction to the devilishly seductive preacher, Apostle Toof, a man from the American south who is almost as slinky hipped as the women he 'cures'  by  placing his hands on their bared flesh. His wife's been smelling blondes in the house for twenty five years. Now, to add to her woes, her husband's church is about to be repossessed. Until that is, Apostle Toof, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, makes an unlikely pact with god. Within hours he's been led to the troubled millionaire, Organdy, who rises Lazarus-like from a stupor under the preacher's healing hands...

Quite where we're being taken in A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes is hard to say, but Lucian Msamati as Apostle Toof is on top form; his comic timing is brilliant and he speaks verse so effortlessly you forget it's verse. As Toof's gospel singing wife, Sharon D Clark is at her intimidating finest, and Anjoa Andoh is seductive as the statuesque Peaches, a dancer who gave up her pole for love. Accused by Mrs Toof of being a whore, Peaches shimmes: I dress this way because I can, not because I want to steal your sad excuse of a man... I am a thick golden brown, brick house goddess of voluptuous lusciouness... Even when I'm a disaster I'm a natural disaster, and I will recover fine.

Marcus Gardley's script, mostly in rhyme, is liquid treacle. What isn't so fluid is its structure, modelled on Molière's Tartuffe. In the original,  both charlatanism and blind faith are held to ridicule. If similar points are being made in A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, they sink somewhere in the overlong second act. By the time we're back on track under Indhu Rubasingham's playful direction, Apostle Toof is ahead on points in a production high on energy, visual gags, and satisfying characters.

In conclusion: A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes is a punchy affirmation of life. As Apostle Toof says to the millionaire he's swindling out of his mansion: We are all dying - just most of us are choosing to live - so live!  Perhaps Molière's themes are less important here to suit a modern palette, but more signposting would still be good. That said, it is great fun.

References
A Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes, tickets

Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR.     Run ends November 14.