Tag Archives: Cambridge Footlights

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

★★

Underbelly Cowgate

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Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

Underbelly Cowgate

Reviewed – 6th August 2019

★★

 

“talented singers and a few funny lines aren’t enough to save this gawky, uneven show”

 

The Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society is behind some phenomenal recent hits, including Six, and Hot Gay Time Machine. Disappointingly, Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area – composed by Laurence T-Stannard, book and lyrics by Amaya Holman and Jamie Bisping – is not destined to travel the same road to fame. An unintelligible story, undeveloped characters, and cringey humour make this one-hour musical feel very long.

A group of employees at a supermarket deal with each other and their own personal problems while facing an infestation of mice just a few days before the health inspectors arrive. Little do they know, a man who wants the supermarket building for his pet shop is sabotaging them. Relying heavily on clichés, the plot is absolutely daft, and almost entirely nonsensical.

The musical’s title and description imply the comedy will be based on observational humour about supermarkets: all of the exasperating, outrageous, laughable, sob-inducing stuff that goes down in Tesco. Who hasn’t been one “Unexpected item in the bagging area!” away from a total mental breakdown? This play is not that. There are no customers, and no insight into the reality of working at a supermarket. Nothing in the story resembles any real-life experience.

There’s considerable confusion surrounding the characters’ ages. Across the board, the performers’ language, speech patterns, mannerisms, and clothing all suggest teens/early-twenties, which makes it jarring each time they mention their multiple divorces or children. It’s clear the characters were not developed enough to convincingly place them at any particular age, which makes them flat. It’s a question why director Caroline Yu chose not to address age in shaping the performances.

Additionally, because the characters are two-dimensional – based on tropes and without nuance – they’re not very interesting. The dynamics between them are shallow and unimaginative. Karen (Ella Burns) stands out with some good comedic lines about Mary Berry, the Pope, and her cat Prudence.

It’s a shame the majority of the humour is unsophisticated. One particularly miscalculated joke is the shouted line, “I’m Karen and I’m barren!” Another is Sammy (Conor Dumbrell) shooting his mother mid-song. Neither receive much laughter, and why either is meant to be funny is anybody’s guess. The comedy throughout is clumsy and heavy-handed. Sammy reveals his real name is… “Not Lucifer, Luci Fur!” There are a lot of jokes like these that don’t work.

The live band on stage is a nice touch, and the musicians are accomplished. The cast deliver strong vocal performances, but regrettably the songs themselves are unmemorable at best. The fishcake song and the fundraiser quiz song are grating and repetitive. Luci Fur’s villainous plotting song is completely incomprehensible. A story Luci Fur tells with sock puppets, meant to reveal an important twist, is muddled, leaving the resolve of the plot still fairly unclear.

Unfortunately, talented singers and a few funny lines aren’t enough to save this gawky, uneven show. A messy, awkward script with mediocre (and some not very good) songs makes for an hour that will have you checking your watch.

 

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Artwork by Chloe Marschner 

 


Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

Underbelly Cowgate until 25th August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

 

 

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Cambridge Footlights
★★★★

Cambridge Arts Theatre

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Cambridge Footlights

Cambridge Footlights

Cambridge Arts Theatre

Reviewed – 10th March 2019

★★★★

 

“Durham Revue … brought a magnificent style and energy to the stage with an act that was intelligent, funny and well executed”

 

When Olivia Colman won an Oscar at the 2019 Academy Awards there was an enormous amount of media attention relating to her current and past acting credits. It was pleasing to see media reference to her being part of a 1984 Cambridge Footlights production.

The Cambridge Footlights is one of the oldest student comedy troupes and has had several members that have gone on to achieve success in the entertainment world including Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, John Cleese, David Baddiel, Emma Thompson, Mel Giedroyc and Sandi Toksvig amongst many others. Each Spring they hold two shows at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. The first of these featured The Bristol Revunions and The Durham Revue joining their Cambridge hosts for a fun-filled evening.

Opening the evening were the team of six from Bristol who entertained the audience over the next thirty minutes with seventeen quick fire sketches. This was apparently the group’s first performance together and whilst cleverly written their performance did seem under rehearsed. Sketches that worked well included two women greeting each other using what seemed like every football goal celebration seen on Match of the Day; an interesting take on the #MeToo movement (#WomenPooToo), and a barbershop quartet connection to marital problems. A sketch that featured a death from a stabbing was uncomfortable to watch and given the current crisis with knife crime perhaps it should be rethought.

Next on was Durham Revue, who had six people that looked and acted as if they were a professional outfit. They brought a magnificent style and energy to the stage with an act that was intelligent, funny and well executed. I particularly liked their sketches about Nelson and Churchill with the way they cleverly linked them to insurance companies. Also impressive were their takes on West Side Story, Teletubbies, Where’s Wally and their explanation of comedy.

Follow a short break it was the turn of The Cambridge Footlights to take the stage and as with the group before them the audience experienced a slick performance. A much larger cast of fifteen competently delivered some very funny sketches including takes on Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mary Poppins, Grease, Andy Murray and Cluedo. Standout for me were the ‘audiobook recording’ that involved the audience and the Headmaster story, though both could have benefitted from being a few minutes shorter.

This was a highly enjoyable evening featuring some exceptional comedy talent at the early stage of their theatrical careers. My only slight disappointment with the show was the very bare stage with only a few chairs for props. It would also be beneficial for there to have been some kind of programme to identify who these impressive performers were and to be able to look out for their names in the future.

The second of the two shows is at the same venue on March 17th featuring Oxford Revue and The Leeds Tealights.

 

Reviewed by Steve Sparrow

Footlights logo by Ed Bankes

 


Cambridge Footlights

Cambridge Arts Theatre

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
A Song At Twilight | ★★★★ | March 2019

 

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