Review by Steve Bennett

Ladies Live Longer... and louder if this spirited show is any measure, as Louise Fitzgerald and Victoria Temple-Morris exude super-exuberant energy from the moment their overwhelmingly female audience file through the door. Everyone is greeted with generous bonhomie, lollipops and name badges.

This is the warm way we are welcomed in to the cult of Volunteerology, a framing device that holds together this loose collection of over-the-top character sketches. Our hosts here are the perkily eager Temple-Morris, leading us in some jolly games, and her dumbstruck sidekick Penny, portrayed via idiotic gurning from the Ricky Gervais school of sensitive characterisation, Derek department.

Overacting is not something this pair fear, as they put whatever mathematically impossible percentage into their performance you’d care to choose. This – and especially the stridently hands-on approach to their audience – more than tides them over their patchy material.

One early scene has them don tabards to become nursery-school teachers, delivering a long story story about Gonad, heavily laced with none-to-subtle double entendres. Then they become well-spoken ladies adopting the ungrammatical language of the street. And finally feuding chuggers, who settle their differences via a Mortal Kombat-style showdown.

It’s exaggerated stuff and nonsense, silly more than special, with one-joke skits often going on that bit too long. Yet there are some nice touches, too, from addressing unseen children in the manner of an updated Joyce Grenfell, to a well-executed sketch conveying the frustrations of teaching an elderly relative how to use an iPad. The closer to portraying real-life situations with a twist, the better they become, keeping their most preposterous imaginings in check.

No matter what the content, their enthusiastic good humour is both genuine and infectious, ensuring a feelgood spirit has dispersed through the room by the time their 50 minutes is up... and a sensible decision, too, not to try to spread this too thinly by going for the full hour. Volunteerology won’t make your festival, but it should leave you in a good mood for a bit.

Review date: 7 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Just The Tonic at The Caves