The best thing that can probably be said of the Durham Revue is that it’s uninspired. Aside from Harry Breslaw, who gives a solid performance throughout, the cast are largely inconsistent in filling their roles. The confidence and tenacity with which they approach their characters fluctuates throughout, with each performer only seeming to fulfil their potential in a couple of scenes, for which a lack of on-stage chemistry seems partly responsible. Neither does the lack of hubris the performers bring to their characters help to avert the audiences’ attention from a script that is itself also uninspired. Originality is scarce. The ‘Harry Potter’ sketch wins the most laughs and is executed with a brilliant precision; the ‘History Fact’ sketch is a short, yet witty, cavort with language; but parodies of action movies and interviews with unlikely or bizarre job candidates are hardly unheard of in sketch shows. The Shakespeare sketch is entertaining, though it runs a little too close in content to the 1989 sketch by Rowan Atkinson and Huge Laurie to be considered original material. On the whole the sketches fizzle out without so much as a twist or a punch-line. To be sure, the show entertains the audience and wins a smattering of applause in places, however it lacks the overall professionalism that you would expect of a production coming out of a university - a trait perhaps best demonstrated by one of the cast attempting to stifle laughter at one of his own jokes. This might be down to the relative inexperience of the cast, but with much younger actors at the Fringe performing with much more restraint and discipline, it’s just not impressive.

Reviewer:
Alexander Blanchard

Alexander Blanchard has written 10 reviews for Broadway Baby since joining the team in 2011.