‘Mid-Laugh Crisis’ Edinburgh Fringe Review
‘The Durham Revue… bring energy, joy and laughter right from the get-go, charging onto the stage in their iconic suspenders.’
The first few minutes of any show are crucial to set the tone and win the audience over. This is something that the Durham Revue excels at as they bring energy, joy and laughter right from the get-go, charging onto the stage in their iconic suspenders. Each cast member was introduced with comedic flare, which again drew the audience in and set the show up for success.
‘Mid-Laugh Crisis’ is the Revue’s sketch show performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer and it was a delight to watch. The show was framed with the concept of opening a time capsule left by founding members of the troupe which was very fitting for their fiftieth anniversary year. The time capsule revealed a ‘curse’ that had been set upon the Revue. The framing added a nice structure to the wide variety of unrelated sketches giving the show a sense of drive and direction. If anything, this could have been embedded further. Despite these being structurally and narratively driven moments they were filled to the brim with self-deprecating humour which got the audience laughing.
The sketches saw ASMR fans get more than they bargained for with Marc Twinn and romantic disputes during the Cha Cha Slide with Jay Robinson and Melissa Redman. Melissa should also be credited for her vocals which feature in the show, utilising her unique skillset which impressed the audience.
Another standout was Alannah O’Hare’s spot-on impersonation of Brian Cox, performed unexpectedly and with a cracking wig. The bit came back in a later sketch, and it was a brilliant running joke. On this note, a broader point can be made about the high standard of characterisation across the cast. People were not put in boxes but rather played an array of contrasting characters convincingly and entertainingly.
Many sketches created humour by turning expectations of stock roles on their heads, such as Bea Bennett’s portrayal of a sweet old lady whose good ‘work within her community’ actually involved leading a local drugs operation.
Throughout the show, the cast’s energy was infectious. Even transitions between the sketches, which could have seen a drop in energy, retained it through wacky dancing and movements characteristic of the Revue. Moreover, the use of tech here added to the atmosphere, with the selection of songs for transitions often thematically linking to the sketch preceding it, adding further fuel to the laughter.
Just as the show was settling into a bit of an ordered routine, new interest was added through the inclusion of audience interaction (charismatically led by Jay Robinson). It came at the perfect time and elicited laughs on all sides of the thrust stage. Furthermore, the use of short, sharp one-liners broke up the longer sketches, for example, Lex Irish’s and Marc Twinn’s mismatching of ‘Big Cook Little Cook’ (one of several height-related gags- which never got old, just increasingly creative). This further aided in the great pacing of the show which kept the audience on the edge of their seats.
Whilst the show was packed with many larger-than-life characters, employing different accents and quick-witted retorts, this did occasionally result in the odd punchline being lost where diction could have been clearer. For some jokes, lines got lost or could not be understood and so while this criticism does not take away from the quality of the writing or the charisma of the performers, it is something that could be improved upon to elevate the show.
‘Mid-Laugh Crisis’ is overall a high-energy production that is sure to make you laugh. On until the 25th of August, there are only a few opportunities left to watch so if you are up at Fringe be sure not to miss out!
By Scarlett Clarke.
‘Mid-Laugh Crisis’ is performing until the 25th August, at 14:30, at Underbelly Cowgate.