Review: Revunions and Friends

This was an entertaining performance from Revunions, Bristol’s comedy society, albeit one which ranged quite wildly in quality.

The show, which is running every night until Friday at the Wardrobe Theatre, kicked off with a disappointing performance from the support act, ‘Twins’. Whilst Jack Barry and Annie McGrath were energetic performers and clearly imaginative, their ideas were not executed particularly well. They performed a number of sketches on the themes of politics, culture and history. There were some funny lines, particularly during the historical sketch which featured Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn moaning at each other about the time they were spending with friends, but many of the jokes fell flat. The sequence on Chinese culture, which bizarrely contained some Mandarin banter with an audience member (which nobody else could understand and therefore laugh at), felt disjointed and lacked comedic direction.

The main act of the night, Revunions, was significantly funnier. Some of the ideas were very clever. The standout sketches were a hilarious take on the Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony, which featured Sir Ian McKellen, Graham Norton and Russian President, Vladimir Putin, performing a dance to gay anthem ‘All The Things She Said’, and a farcical PPI/accident insurance advert.

Other highlights included an appalling Hollywood scriptwriter (Will Pope) pitching terrible film ideas, all of which were set in an office, to two bemused film executives, as well as a special ‘Flood’ episode of the Archers. The ‘tactless dad’ scene, which featured a father revealing his son was adopted through a game of ‘I Spy’, was well-acted, but did seem reminiscent of an Armstrong and Miller sketch. James Alexander and Will Pope were strong performers, but the impact of the comedy was lessened somewhat by several cast members stumbling on their lines.

Overall, this was an enjoyable night of comedy, which, despite its flaws, was energetic and engaging from start to finish.