Revenge of the Revue

The Revue’s sketch show at the BT is a hit-and-miss affair, highly entertaining in parts, but dragging at times also.

The troupe bounded through the audience to open the performance and set the scene as members of the Revue wrapping up their latest show. The adoring cries of elated audience members faded out from the speakers as they set off driving home; one wonders if this was a subtle suggestion for the current viewers.

This unfolding plotline soon found the Revue members stranded on a traffic roundabout in the aftermath of a car crash, providing the backbone and overarching story for the performance. Events on the roundabout were interspersed with other unrelated sketches, and these were the stronger features of the performance.

This narrative device, of an overall story returned to in between skits, must be employed deftly, with great care taken to avoid disorienting the audience. In this production it seemed to detract from the overall quality as the jumps between stand-alone sketches and the roundabout arc gave the production a disjointed and muddled feel.

The performance would have benefited from a wholehearted embrace of its identity as a sketch show, rather than attempting to straddle a middle ground and losing coherence along the way.

Nonetheless, the stand-alone sketches were often of a high quality and David Meredith’s offbeat performance was the highlight of the show. His portrayals were conveyed with poise and assurance, eliciting the warmest audience reactions.

Credit must be given to the troupe for producing fresh and original content for each set of productions; this allows scope to insert material fresh in the minds of audience members. This flexibility was used to great effect, slotting in witty references to Galloway’s infamous anti-Israeli walkout, as well as the hilarious Taylor Swift goat mashup.

That being said, while some of the sketches flowed well, others lacked precision and sharpness in delivery, resulting in a drift in momentum and audience engagement. There was a sense that the back-and-forth between actors lacked polish in certain skits, this led to sluggishness in the development of the sketch, draining punch lines of their comedic impact.

The production showed promise, but was not as sharp and streamlined as it could have been, and at times lacked the punchy deliveries key to the success of sketch-based humour. It will certainly elicit chuckles, just perhaps not raucous side-splitting guffaws.