Tag Archives: Magnificent Bastard Productions

Shit-faced Showtime: Oliver With a Twist! -3 Stars

Oliver

Shit-faced Showtime: Oliver With a Twist!

Leicester Square Theatre

Reviewed – 5th September 2018

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“an excellent format for a boozy night out with friends”

 

Continuing their now regular slot at the Leicester Square theatre, the Sh*t-Faced Showstoppers have swapped the boozy bard for drunken Dickens. If you haven’t heard of this now notorious troupe, five actors take to the stage to perform a classical theatre piece. The only catch is that one of them is very drunk. The group are most well-known for their take on Shakespeare classics; however this version of the Dickens musical drew just as big a crowd as most of their shows.

As you can imagine, or may well know, these shows are loose and riotous. The theatre itself has four bars, and it took fifteen minutes after the scheduled start time for the audience to move from the bar into their seats. The tacky set design with window etchings such as β€˜Dickolas Dickleby woz ere’ further indicated what the audience were to expect. Indeed, what this group have created is an excellent format for a boozy night out with friends. The atmosphere in the room before the show was excitable, and the audience were free to shout and get involved. I was seated with beer in hand ready for whatever carnage may unfold.

The general consensus in the room was that most people enjoyed it, which was clear from the general hysteria in the room. Sadly, for me, I rather felt like the only sober person at a party full of jolly and drunk acquaintances. The drunken actor, playing Oliver Twist, slurred plenty of lines and went off on ludicrous tangents, speaking to the audience about subjects that had nothing to do with the play. It was a controlled mess which most people loved, however I felt rather short changed. Aside from the one inebriated actor, there wasn’t much to enjoy. The show appeared to be framed in a way that tailored best to the drunken actor, with short and simplified scenes that had plenty of room to allow them to be as silly as they want. Perhaps if it was the other way round, and the actor had to navigate themselves through a very tight-knit and nuanced show, I would have found it more entertaining.

The company has a unique premise, and indeed a crop of great talent. Their format has already achieved great success and looks as if it will continue to do so. If you are someone looking for a funny night out with friends, maybe a cultural pit-stop before a big night out, get yourself a ticket. If you are a theatre fan looking a comedic spin on some of your favourite shows, and you decide to go, maybe have a few drinks before.

 

Reviewed by Edward Martin

Photography by Rah Petherbridge

 


Shit-faced Showtime: Oliver With a Twist!

Leicester Square Theatre until 9th September

 

Related
Sh*t-faced Shakespeare reviews
The Merchant of Venice | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | April 2018
Romeo and Juliet | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | June 2018

 

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

 

 

Sh*t-faced Shakespeare:Β The Merchant of Venice

Merchant

Shit-faced Shakespeare:Β The Merchant of Venice

Leicester Square Theatre

Reviewed – 19thΒ  April 2018

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“perhaps unsurprisingly, not for the purists, but a joy for everybody else”

 

Magnificent Bastard Productions’ Shakespeare adaptations have a very simple premise; the plays are performed straight, but one of the actors has spent a few hours before the show getting very, very drunk. For predictable reasons, namely not giving the actors a deft case of cirrhosis of the liver, Magnificent Bastard Productions rotate a large cast around various roles, providing different characters and actors with the opportunity to drink. On the evening of this review, Louise Lee was the drunkard du jour, playing Shylock’s daughter Jessica.

The humour (and therefore the meat) of this wilfully uproarious production comes from Lee’s inability or unwillingness to perform her role as intended, resulting in ridiculous and often abstract tangents to which the sober actors respond. In this sense, Shit-faced Shakespeare has much in common with traditional improvised shows, but with the madness sourced from just one highly unpredictable actor. Further cementing the improv feel of the show is the inclusion of a compere (Saul Marron) to introduce the rules of the show and provide occasional commentary/support on Lee’s antics.

And antics there certainly were. It’s hard to gaugeΒ where the drunkenness stopped and Lee’s blank cheque to cause a nuisance began, but the contrast of her stumbling (through half-remembered lines and also stumbling more generally) against a traditional cast of actors β€˜doing Shakespeare properly’ is genuinely very funny, if occasionally fundamentally at odds with dramatic contents of a given scene. Where some of the best laughs, as always with improv, come from are the baffled attempts of performers to go along with whatever insanity has just been established; I occasionally felt as though one actor constantly being the butt of the joke, whether willingly or not, lent a slight sense of cruelty to the proceedings. It might have been nice to have the compere introduce Lee as the star of the show during the introduction – a more personal touch might have lessened the occasional, nagging feeling of being part of a baying mob.

I sometimes wonder with improvisation whether things would in reality play out differently the following night, but I had no such concerns here; this is a neat and effective take on improv, allowing for a genuinely unpredictable atmosphere, with control of the piece flitting between the compere, the sober actors, the drunken Lee as Jessica, and, in a delightful touch, even the audience.

Overall, this was a great Summer chortler that provides glorious improvisation madness under the guise of a classic Shakespeare play. Shit-faced Shakespeare is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not for the purists, but a joy for everybody else.

 

Reviewed by Matthew Wild

Photography by Rah Petherbridge

 


Shit-faced Shakespeare:Β The Merchant of Venice

Leicester Square Theatre until 2nd June 2018

 

 

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