Theatre Review: Oxford Revue

The performance billed as The Oxford Revue is in fact the Oxford Revue, the Cambridge Footlights, and the Durham Revue. The three companies give distinctive performances, all interesting in their own way. The Oxford Revue, as hosts, take the entirety of the first half, while the Durham Revue and the Footlights divide the second half between them. The show is hefty, weighing in at three hours (including a twenty minute interval). It is paced well, however, and the time slips by merrily. I was genuinely surprised to realise it was so late when I came out of the theatre.

The task of opening a show like this is always a difficult one, and the Oxford Revue faces up to the task reasonably well. They present a well-rehearsed series of sketches, all of which are well-designed, with witty build-ups leading to effective punch-lines. It takes them a little while to get into their stride, but once they do it all works as it should. My only criticism of the Oxford portion of the show is that it seems occasionally to go for rather obvious or stereotypical targets. There's a sketch about the American conservative right, and one about the pro-hunting lobby, both of which strike me as rather unseemly (although the hunt sketch includes some rather good lines).

The Footlights have the closing segment of the show. Their sketches are less polished than those of the Oxford Revue - several of them seem to tail off without really coming to any particular conclusion, giving rather the impression of being ideas that might be fully developed at some later stage. However the sketches of the Cambridge Footlights are consistently more original and more interesting than those from Oxford. Alone of the three productions, the Cambridge offering includes stand-up as well as sketch comedy. The two stand-up comedians are reasonably good, but nothing especially stands out. The Footlights also provide the best solo performance of the evening, the comedian who presents the opening "Weatherman" sketch. The "NHS Direct" sketch is exceptionally good.

The show is stolen, however, by the Durham Revue. The Oxford and Cambridge performances are Revue in the true sense of the word; they essentially consist of a large group of comedians loosely co-operating on a mixed bag of comedy sketches. The Durham Revue is something very different. Where the other two groups present a large cast and a variety of styles, the Durham Revue present a sharply choreographed and entirely coherent comedy show. The Durham troupe consists of only six members, all of whom, for this show, were dressed uniformly in black trousers and white shirts, and their sketches likewise all have a consistent feel to them. As well as being tightly scripted and well delivered, the Durham sketches are off-the-wall original, and while they occasionally provoke something of a "what the.?" reaction, they also evoked consistent, genuine laughter from the audience.

I have a feeling that the Revue actually runs for one night only in Oxford, but if you get the chance to see any of the groups again, it will be well worth it, particularly in the case of Durham, who really do stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Dan Hemmens, 07.06.05