one4review | On 07, Aug 2024

The idea for this show instantly attracted me – a frustrated screenwriter, lacking the funding to turn their proposed big-budget blockbuster Bond-alike movie off the ground is only able to get enough money to make it as a play to pitch it to a well-known producer (played by a random audience member in the first row). Cue actors having to swap roles to cover missing cast members, shoddy special effects and ingenious cardboard props and the laughs are bound to follow. Unfortunately, the show itself from A Cabbage Productions, while competent, lacks the polish and precision necessary live up to its fun premise.

The two writers on the show, Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey, are alumni of Mischief Theatre’s Play That Goes Wrong on the West End and it shows. To be a little mean, it does feel a little like a knock-off a Mischief show at times – similar premise, similar gags (though none of the stunts and slapstick that Mischief does so well) and the same metafictional layering of actors playing directors playing characters, but with a bit less development for each (somewhat inevitable given the running time). It’s a little disappointing that Howell and Stacey weren’t able to find a more distinct voice of their own as the inevitable comparisons aren’t particularly flattering, but it’s still an enjoyable formula.

Overall, the show got a few good chuckles out of me and even a one or two guffaws, but there was also a lot of dead air, jokes that missed the mark a little bit and left the audience a bit confused (stabs at raunchy humour felt weirdly out of place with the much more cartoonish tone of the show) and there was just a general feeling that the script hadn’t been pruned for the dud gags and slow scenes. The cast were, however, a delight and I think there’s a chance the show could be a hidden gem, just as long as it gets carefully cut and polished.

***
Reviewed by Tom
Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath
12.00 (50mins)
Until 26th Aug (not 13 of 20)