FAILURE: Dress Rehearsal Review

Sketch shows are, by their nature, comedy without substance.

Now, I’ve never seen a sketch show, or indeed anything, and to be honest I spent most of the show thinking about myself, but I’ll review it anyway.

Hi, I’m Ted Hill and this is my review.

I arrived at the playroom; it was a Sunday, the day of our Lord. It was 9pm. I’d had a sandwich for lunch, but not for dinner; I chose instead a lasagne. While I was outside the playroom, I had a cigarette with a Norwegian man – I don’t remember his name, but he was nice.  The playroom is a funny shape.

Apparently failure is the ‘theme’ of the show. When I asked Patrick Brooks, one of the writers (and in a weird coincidence also the editor of The Tab) about this, he refused to comment, saying that “two of the characters are comedians who are terrified of failure”. It all went over my head, but sounded interesting.

The show begins in darkness, before the tech crew wisely decided to turn on the lights, allowing the actors to be seen as well as heard. Another thing that I liked is the actors themselves, they were all great, especially at acting. My favourite actor is Ian McKellen.

My favourite sketch was the one where the big reveal is that the baby’s father is Stalin. Of course, this sketch is ruined for you now.

I was asked to give the show a star rating, but I don’t think Art needs that. The role of the critic is not to judge, but to experience.

‘Failure’ is on at the Corpus Playroom from Thursday 9^th October to Saturday 11^th October. Tickets are £5 for students.