Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
So after a week of battling the sluggish and unrelenting gremlin that is Fresher’s Flu, laughter was, of course, the medicine I needed, and where better a place to find it than at Comedy Soc’s Big Free Start of Term Show on Wednesday?
Indulging in a bit of comedy geekery, I’d already read many a wonderful review about improvisational comedy troupe The Shambles before coming to York, so it was great to see them as the first act of the evening. Their boundless enthusiasm was infectious as they warmed up the audience, preparing us to shout out suggestions for improvised songs and games. Within the first minute, the group were showered with ideas for their first song, resulting in a rather macabre, but hilarious number about Pokémon trapped in an abattoir. Complete with rousing, sing-a-long chorus (poor, poor Squirtle) and shameless puns (Pokéballs, anyone?), this was a fantastic start to the show. The laughter continued with more improvised games, ranging from ‘Heroes and Villains’ (featuring one particularly memorable hero called ‘Mr Kestral’), to ‘World’s Worst…’, a game reminiscent of those from Whose Line is it Anyway? and Mock the Week. There were some slight technical difficulties; apologies were made that certain visual and lighting effects would not be present, but this did not prevent the audience from being drawn inexorably into The Shambles’ gloriously eccentric and creative world.
The second half consisted of a mixture of stand-up and sketches, which might have been better with a permanent compere to introduce each act. Nevertheless, the transitions were still fairly smooth, and credit must go to the heads of writers, Izzi Dixon and Ellen Stevens, who filled in for a missing cast member at the last minute. In some instances, they needed to read directly from the script, but this in no way detracted from the performances. All of the sketches were well paced, and built up the laughs gradually, although my favourite had to be a nicely observed scene about the complicated interpretations involved in buying a bunch of flowers. A splash of Shakespearian referencing also pleased my inner literary nerd.
Interspersed within the sketches were two stand-up acts. Ian Angell was the first stand-up of the evening, a set rife with unremitting one-liners and perfectly timed delivery. It’s true that this style may not be for everyone, but as a big fan of The Pun, I was groaning and guffawing along with the rest of the audience in equal measure. Stuart Hall was next up with a short, caustic set based around film and TV. A very energetic performer, the highlight was his satirical and dramatic imaginings of a film adaptation of the board game Monopoly. If anything, his set could have been longer as he seemed to grow in confidence more as his act progressed.
There was a slight hiccup at the end of the show when the final performer failed to materialise, so again, a compere might have come in handy at that point, but all in all, a terrific show and a great Freshers’ introduction to Comedy Soc. Now with my Fresher’s Flu finally banished, I look forward to more over the coming weeks!
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