Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks

Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks is all about nostalgia. Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon’s two-man play is a dewy-eyed homage to British wrestling’s golden age, cast in the form of a slapstick-ish caper about two of its great icons: the titular Big Daddy (real name Shirley Crabtree, played by Ross Gurney-Randall) and Giant Haystacks (Martin Ruane, portrayed by David Mounfield).

Crabtree and Ruane were in the first rank of sporting celebrities during professional wrestling's 1970s' heyday, their long-running (scripted) rivalry drawing millions of viewers. Gurney-Randall and Mounfield do service not only as the wrestlers themselves, but the hangers-on who helped sustain a multimillion pound industry: Gurney-Randall’s glib, swaggering parody of TV boss Greg Dyke is a gem, while Mounfield’s recurring role as promoter-cum-narrator Max Crabtree (brother of Big Daddy) is delivered with a playful disregard for the fourth wall. But it’s as Crabtree and Ruane themselves—lumbering, plainspoken northerners bounding around with infectious energy—that they're most entertaining.

As a character study, Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks is fairly lightweight; fun, but not especially sophisticated. But as a potted history of the decline of professional British wrestling, it proves unexpectedly thoughtful: the aftermath of King Kong Kirk’s death during a bout in 1987 is handled with remarkable pathos, and wrestling’s ultimate submission to repeated press attacks on its fundamental nature—as spectacle, rather than sport—provides an uncomfortably ignominious climax, as both the industry and its stars fade into obscurity.