Writers: Madeline Pell, Rosina Williams, Christopher Keegan and Sophie Pell
Green Fingers Productions have come back to the Backyard Comedy Club, with an evening of sketches and improvisations. The eight-strong company whizz on and off the stage, assemble relevant props in the blackouts, get themselves kitted out in bits of costume and generally run around like wild things in a scatter-gun evening of sketches. Some of them work well, some of them miss a bit, but they arrive so rapidly that any misfires are over with before anyone notices. Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am adrenalised to the eyeballs.
The 15 or so sketches explore a lot of contemporary dating dilemmas; there’s a strong undercurrent of skewering horrible men; there’s a lot of pointing up wild and wonderful ways for women to enjoy themselves. And it all gallops by at a breakneck pace.
The pick of the sketches is a two-minute re-enactment of the Titanic movie, the most memorable is a surreal relationship between a girl and a tennis racket, and the weakest one is a punning gag involving a one-word punchline and a stage full of props. There are rather too many riffs on therapy and counselling with a bunch of performers sitting on a ring of chairs and blurting out embarrassing truths, and it’s done and dusted in an hour and a quarter.
Sketch shows feel a bit retro in the contemporary world of stand-up. Observational, confessional, barbed, those seem to be the prevalent modes. This show has set-ups and punchlines, fewer gags and more situations. It’s characterful; the performers give themselves about 30 seconds to establish their persona before getting into the meat of the routine, and that’s nearly enough – reining back on the hectic and spending a moment longer on the character work might be useful. Several of the performers show some skill in that direction, and the jokes can be less on the nose if they come from character. But the show doesn’t like to hang around, so perhaps working on the transitions between sketches, and accelerating the flow, might be beneficial. Getting props and furniture on and off is accomplished with brio, but it makes for hiccups in the flow of gags. Someone should maybe look at the effort involved in dressing the stage for a one-liner.
It’s a bawdy, speedy, funny show that enlivens a slow Sunday evening in Bethnal Green. Maybe a bit of a polish would help it to become stand-out stand-up, but the Crumbling Creatives deliver the comic goods with some flair. Flair and, in their final sketch, fruit salad.
Reviewed on 30 July 2023
