To anyone who has seen 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', the format of the show put on by the Amazing Spectacles is familiar: six performers wield all their skills of improvisation in an array of fictional scenes and charade-like games, most of which are suggested by the audience.

No topic is refused, and the fun lies in seeing how the troupe deal with whatever surreal concepts are thrown up - Gay Frankenstein in Ukrainian and Alan Titchmarsh's stalker in our case. For the most part the Spectacles, six bright young things from Cambridge, were adept at taking an idea and not only acting it out fairly convincingly, but squeezing in as much comedy as possible. The talent on display was at times a little uneven, but there was on the whole enough wit, timing, inspired physical comedy and general bizarreness to keep the momentum going.

The real laughs came when one or other of the group produced a stroke of comic genius right out of left field, just when it looked as though the scene had been thoroughly improvised into a brick wall - and, happily, there were quite a few of these moments. Just as many sketches fell flat, but in a way this made the whole performance seem that much more authentic. The audience was told at the beginning that most of the improvisational challenges hadn't been tried out before, and they would forgive a few failures for knowing that the whole thing hadn't been scripted beforehand.

Audience participation is everything in this sort of show. Pantomime conventions of cheering, warning and encouraging are not easy to elicit outside the Christmas season, and the Spectacles did well to get a pretty disappointing crowd in on the act. It's a fine line between getting your audience in the mood and coercing them into participating - the last thing you want as a performer is to be humoured - but it was all good-natured enough to get the crowd willingly joining in.

In fact, its overwhelming bonhomie is perhaps the show's greatest appeal. It's quite impossible to dislike the performers - they are all just so nice. While it might be a bit wholesome for some, there's something to be said for an enthusiastic bunch of improvisers putting themselves on the line and their acting skills to the test. Somehow, it makes for a peculiarly rewarding comic experience.

Tim Markham, 12.10.02