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Brighton Fringe 2010

Radio City Theatre

Radio City Theatre

Venue: The Brunswick

Festival:


Low Down

 A fun evening of film noir Radio sketches performed as live theatre by very versatile actors.

Review

Radio City Theatre is a production based on film noir comedy  through a series of short comedy sketches for radio, played out as live theatre, based around a storyline.

The design of the set  was perfect, exactly as i imagined a Radio Studio to look. Large, standing microphones and props set for sound effects, clearly laid out, and on view. This worked  well in the intimate setting of The Brunswick performance space and really set the tone of the piece

The show started, with a countdown to the live "On Air" sign being lit and the actors rushing in at the last minute, finding their scripts and places at the microphones giving a real sense of being "live", a nice touch.

The Actors played very well together as an ensemble and really looked like they were enjoying and relishing the roles. This is always a good thing to see because it relaxes the audience and allows everyone to feel very free to respond to what’s happening. At one point i closed my eyes as if listening to radio and i have to say this worked for me just as well as the visual side, a heads up to the performers  and director who clearly got the atmosphere spot on.

The scripts themselves were mostly a pastiche of film noir often funny and clever but never really outstanding. There was little risk taken here. As i looked around the audience, i dont recall seeing anyone who looked under the age of 35 and there was much laughter spreading round so i think they pitched their audience perfectly. 

I do however think that it was too long and some of the sketches were a little over-milked and it started to look like the material was running dry. I believe some of the writing could have benefitted with some tightening and editing and  more thought gone into the gags because although they worked on one level, i seconded guessed where they were going and so there were no real surprises. It is a difficult balance to get right. Having said that, alll the actors are clearly very talented. A key strength were the very distinctive characters. 

I had an enjoyable evening and look forward to seeing more from this talented ensemble of actors.

 

 

Published

Show Website

 www.radiocitytheatre.com