By: Tiny Dynamite
Reviewer: Simon Topping
This beautifully stylistic and funny improv comedy show lovingly pastiches Wes Anderson movies to the delight of the audience gathered.
To anyone familiar with Wes Anderson and his back catalogue of eccentric and humorous films Yes Anderson will be a real treat.
The action starts in a nondescript European town where a dusty old post office is about to close. The clerk thumbs through a mountain of telegrams, never sent, and reminisces. The “telegrams” are cards filled in by the audience before the show about Wes Anderson style characters and their stories, to enable the performers to drive the narrative, it’s a lovely funny conceit that both works well and sets the scene for the action in an interesting way.
From these suggestions we see several opening scenes that are both engaging and funny including preparation for Dick and Fanny’s wedding cue the double entendres, which are lots of fun. The second telegram sees Posh Spice selling a painting called the Moaning Lisa,; improviser Tim Meredith’s expressions are hilarious. The third scene sees a dotty old lady, again superbly played by Meredith, outlining how she wants to get pregnant at 86 just to confuse and surprise the mourners at her funeral. The fourth scene really starts to drive the narrative of the piece when young Bartholomew attempts to win archery gold using just one arm.
The set up stage of the show is full of beautifully large and well crafted characters and plenty of laughs.
In part two a fabulously painted Wes Anderson-esque card denotes “A complication Arises” as we return to scenes from part one with progressions. With a well honed depth of skill the four performers begin to weave a story about runaway children marrying, an outbreak of killer weevils and a poet on a mission.
The piece has good pacing. As with a Wes Anderson films, it starts slowly and begins to speed up as the strings of the stories interweave and tie together.
There are several outstanding scenes including, archery with Bartholomew, Bjorn and his powerful aftershave, the delusional unpublish poet at the publishers, dissecting frogs at school and the alpine horn announcer, who is fabulously played by Jenny Haufek.
Yes Anderson is a well structured piece and it is it’s structure that holds the show together solidly, allowing the performers to go big on character and really enjoy themselves. This joy and warmth is infectious and translates to lots of laughter in the room and a general air of warmth towards the troupe.
Yes Anderson is improv with a lot of heart. It’s funny, stylish bonkers and above all very Wes Anderson. Go and see it now.
Reviewed in 13th May. Runs to 15th May
The Review Hub Score
Totally Wes Anderson!
