Review by Corry Shaw

This is so many kinds of bad I actually find it hard to know where to begin.

These three students seem to be completely confused about what they want to bring to Edinburgh. I can imagine the conversation that took place on the manicured lawns of Cambridge University: ‘Shall we do a play, a sketch show, characters or a Shakespearean epic where we can pretend we're being ironic to show off our acting skills?’ ‘Yes.’

The cast seem to be reluctant to revel in any glory as their names are omitted from the press release, the contact for the show is unobtainable and no one can seem to put a name to the faces that brought an hour of pain to a small and silent audience. It is not surprising they wish to remain anonymous. The play, for want of a better word, is purposefully overacted and hammed up, which is excruciating to sit though as there are no punchlines and no laughs The only possible pay-off is in one of the final scenes where the leading man who is playing a failed actor proves that he can actually act by dropping the supposedly comedy theatrics to deliver a Shakespearean soliloquy. Sadly when he drops the character all he proves is that he genuinely cannot act.

They have tried to be entirely too clever with multiple characters played by three people, scene changes that happen midway through dialogue and a storyline which is as awful as it is cliched. These are drama students who have studied theatrical technique and seem blindly convinced that if they throw as many ploys they have learned from textbooks at the show then something will stick. But they are just too inexperienced to pull off any of them.

The writing is lazy, one dimensional and predictable. The stereotyped characters are uninspiring and painfully dull. The direction is ambitious but fails on every level and the cast are enthusiastic but ineffective.

I have absolutely no idea why this is in the comedy section of the programme – perhaps the only reason is that it is so completely laughable as a piece of theatre.

Review date: 16 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Corry Shaw