A bumper Bard evening

Maybe you’ve had your fair share of proper Shakespeare, maybe you’ve already seen more than you want to, maybe you just like the idea of efficiency in getting through all of Shakespeare’s work in two hours. Well, you might just find this show appealing. A fun romp through famous plays and their derivatives, it achieves well what it sets out to do and certainly makes for a pleasant evening out.

The action follows three actors fresh out of the same drama school as they try to make their names as Shakespearean actors by giving the audience a taste of every play during the course of one evening. The air is low budget and the theatre comfortingly publike (it actually is a pub) despite its enthusiastic makeover as ye Olde Tudor backdrop. Hey, they’ve even got a fun spoof programme to get you in the mood. The show is also varied and inventive, being split into separate sketches on individual plays, and some combinations (for instance all the comedies in one animated film). Although not all side-splittingly funny, they’re original and good fun, interspersed with a couple of gems. Who’d have thought an ‘off-the-cuff’ rap of Othello could sit so snugly with a Jurassic Park themed interpretive dance? A particular favourite of mine was the healthy energetic race through Romeo and Juliet complete with pantomime nurse.

The real plot of the show revolves around the contrasting personalities and ambitions of the three actors, all excellently portrayed by the three real actors. These characters are caricaturish but in the tradition of the low-budget village-hall genre the production seems intent on occupying, they are very much de rigueur. The performances given by all three actors are energetic, professional and impressive throughout. The fool of the funny trio, Lucy Wooliscroft, manages to charm even in the unpromising part of a woman who shrieks frequently and loudly enough to set the audience’s teeth on edge. Whether the play is a parody of this sort of amateur drama or an epitome of it, it works to have the audience chuckling into their pints.

This play-cum-sketch-show is a warming example of Shakespearean humour, not to mention an excellent appraisal of the great playwright and his work. It’s might not be genius but you can certainly get a great feel for the scope of the famous plays and have a relaxed evening out at the same time.

Playing at The New Red Lion, Islington until August. From £16