Tag Archives: Camden Fringe Festival 2023

How to Start Your Own Cult

How to Start Your Own Cult

★★★

The Bill Murray

HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray

★★★

How to Start Your Own Cult

“each comedian individually has some very funny moments”

 

Cults are a rich and potentially comic goldmine, so it was a slight surprise when it became quickly clear that this show has nothing to do with its title.

How to Start Your Own Cult is a series of character monologues performed by three comedians. In a witty voiceover, the audience is welcomed to a seminar: how to start your own cult, and told that we will have to work hard to find the link between the monologues and the seminar itself. This is a comic way of admitting that there is little to no through line between these sketches. It is funny, but leaves the show feeling disjointed and a bit random. Each of the nine monologues is introduced by its tenuous link to the seminar, for example: people in cults have neighbours, here’s a sketch about neighbours. It’s a fun way to attempt to link the pieces, but it falls a bit flat.

This show is a work in progress, and so shouldn’t be judged as a completely finished product. There are some technical glitches, a few forgotten lines and some nervous pauses, but none of that matters. What does matter, is the issue of a lack of cohesion and coherence.

It is crucial to say, each comedian individually has some very funny moments. Ben Goldsmith does a series of sketches about biblical figures, each with an increasingly outlandish accent. My favourite is his vision of the tiger, awaiting her turn on Noah’s arc, getting her nails done. His sketches are funny, slick and work well together. Though they feel a tonally a bit off with the other comics’ work.

Kate Davison re-enacts her character’s gritty, but out of touch documentary about modern Britain. This is a great idea, and the character she has built is a great blend of satire and self-ridicule. There are moments she could turn it up a few more notches, it doesn’t have the confident ridiculousness of Goldsmith’s sketches, but there is definitely a gem of something, and with a bit of polishing it will work really well.

The third comic, Chris East, performs three very different monologues, combining music, audience interaction, and control over silence. He makes quietly waiting for the correct intro music a golden comedy moment. His sketches are not interlinked with one another, though they all demonstrate his taste for amping up a familiar situation into something weirder, and more surreal. They need a bit of tightening up, and there are some pacing issues, but all three have glittering flashes of comic gold.

Each of the sketches is enjoyable, and it is a broadly amusing hour of comedy, especially for a work in progress. The issue is that the show would work better if there was a stronger link between the pieces, or even no attempt at a link at all.


HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray

Reviewed on 26th August 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

 

 

 

 

More Camden Fringe 2023 Reviews:

 

Invasion! An Alien Musical | ★★ | Camden People’s Theatre | July 2023
This Girl: The Cynthia Lennon Story | ★★ | Upstairs at the Gatehouse | July 2023
Glad To Be Dead? | ★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | July 2023
Maybe I Do? | ★★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | July 2023
Flamenco: Origenes | ★★★★ | Etcetera Theatre | August 2023
All That Glitters | ★★½ | Rosemary Branch Theatre | August 2023
Dead Souls | ★★½ | Etcetera Theatre | August 2023
Kate-Lois Elliott: Gentrif*cked | ★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
Improv The Dead | ★★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | August 2023
Avocado Presents | ★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | August 2023
Sarah Roberts : Do You Know Who I Am? | ★★★★ | The Bill Murray | August 2023
End Of The World Fm | ★★★ | Cockpit Theatre | August 2023
Ashley Barnhill: Texas Titanium | ★★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
The Vagina Monologues | ★★★ | Canal Café Theatre | August 2023
Not Like Other Girls | ★★★★ | The Queer Comedy Club | August 2023
Improv Death Match | ★★★★ | Aces and Eights | August 2023
Theatresports | ★★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
My Body Is Not Your Country | ★★★ | Cockpit Theatre | August 2023

How to Start Your Own Cult

How to Start Your Own Cult

Click here to read all our latest reviews

 

Confused Chronicles Of Aleppo

Confused Chronicles Of Aleppo



Camden People’s Theatre

CONFUSED CHRONICLES OF ALEPPO at the Camden People’s Theatre

Confused Chronicles Of Aleppo

“The end result is indeed confused, and sad to say, lacking in drama”

 

Confused Chronicles of Aleppo sounds promising from the description on the Camden People’s Theatre’s website, but the actual performance turns out to be something rather different. It’s a fifty minute, two man production. Underluminal, the novel on which Confused Chronicles of Aleppo is based, presents the story of two photo journalists who travel the world in search of images that will make them famous. It’s a tale told in flashbacks, ending eventually in the war torn city of Aleppo. We know from the beginning that the Syrian assignment will have tragic consequences for both Gerard and Becky.

Confused Chronicles of Aleppo is well named, though perhaps a touch ironic, because there is much in the narrative that is opaque and difficult to follow. Performer Alessandro Onorato reads from a pile of pages on stage, accompanied by the steady beat of musician Nicolò Bodini of the band La Scapigliatura. As he finishes a page, he lets go, and it flutters to the floor. Truth be told, there’s not much about Aleppo in this meandering tale of two photo journalists who meet on a beach in Vietnam, and become colleagues, as well as lovers.

Onorato has any number of opportunities to connect with the audience and give a tangible sense of the main characters in Confused Chronicles of Aleppo. But it’s difficult for the audience to see these moments when Onorato’s eyes are glued to the pages he is reading. The beat from Bodini, while pleasant to listen to, also has the unfortunate effect of muting much of what Onorato is saying. The end result is indeed confused, and sad to say, lacking in drama. Despite the promising title.

Onorato and Bodini have the germ of something interesting in Confused Chronicles of Aleppo. There is an eye catching backdrop on stage for the piece, with rough textured textiles on which pages of script have been attached. Despite that, there are still missed opportunities to create a set that is more evocative of the locations that are described in the show. Most importantly, Onorato needs to ditch his script, and simply connect with the audience. There’s a great story waiting to be revealed in Confused Chronicles of Aleppo, but it needs more work before it’s ready for its next appearance in the theatre.

 


CONFUSED CHRONICLES OF ALEPPO at the Camden People’s Theatre

Reviewed on 25th August 2023

by Dominica Plummer


 

 

 

More reviews from Camden Fringe 2023:

 

Invasion! An Alien Musical | ★★ | Camden People’s Theatre | July 2023
This Girl: The Cynthia Lennon Story | ★★ | Upstairs at the Gatehouse | July 2023
Glad To Be Dead? | ★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | July 2023
Maybe I Do? | ★★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | July 2023
Flamenco: Origenes | ★★★★ | Etcetera Theatre | August 2023
All That Glitters | ★★½ | Rosemary Branch Theatre | August 2023
Dead Souls | ★★½ | Etcetera Theatre | August 2023
Kate-Lois Elliott: Gentrif*cked | ★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
Improv The Dead | ★★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | August 2023
Avocado Presents | ★★★ | Hen & Chickens Theatre | August 2023
Sarah Roberts : Do You Know Who I Am? | ★★★★ | The Bill Murray | August 2023
End Of The World Fm | ★★★ | Cockpit Theatre | August 2023
Ashley Barnhill: Texas Titanium | ★★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
The Vagina Monologues | ★★★ | Canal Café Theatre | August 2023
Not Like Other Girls | ★★★★ | The Queer Comedy Club | August 2023
Improv Death Match | ★★★★ | Aces and Eights | August 2023
Theatresports | ★★★★ | Museum of Comedy | August 2023
My Body Is Not Your Country | ★★★ | Cockpit Theatre | August 2023

Confused Chronicles Of Aleppo

Confused Chronicles Of Aleppo

Click here to read all our latest reviews