Two very different comedy events in Colchester last week. A theatre production and a stand-up, poles apart in subject matter and approach and both extremely funny…..
First up at the Mercury Theatre was the ‘Lip Service Theatre Company‘ production “Withering Looks“, a spoof on the lives of the Bronte sisters, starring and written by Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding.
Withering Looks takes an “authentic” look at the lives and works of the Bronte sisters – well, two of them actually, Anne’s just popped out for a cup of sugar. (Government cuts apparently, although there is a lottery application in we are told). Peopled with many of the characters we know and love, Maggie and Sue move effortlessly from frock to frock coat.
Audrey (Fox) and Olivia (Ryding), who are part of the National Institution for Bringing History to Life Society, don “authentic” Victorian costume and present a potted history of the life and work of the famous sisters. We get knowing glances to the audience, cheeky asides and barely hidden rivalry (one of the two was once a Cyberman in Dr. Who don’t you know), this very funny double act had the audience in stitches. There were also some lovely, relevant jokes about cuts in arts funding and ‘that hat’ Princess Eugenie wore at the recent Royal Wedding.
Finally, sporting wild wigs, the twosome perform their interpretation of the 1939 MGM film of Wuthering Heights, sending up the idiosyncratic accents of Olivier and Oberon to particularly good effect.
This is by turns superbly silly and deftly skilled and always laugh out loud funny – and to think I was in two minds about booking!
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Next up at the Colchester Arts Centre was Miles Jupp, showcasing his latest routine. Back in 2006, suddenly finding himself disillusioned with acting and comedy, former Perrier Award nominee Jupp decided to pack it all in and pursue a new dream of becoming a cricket journalist. Fibber in the Heat is the sorry tale of how a man attempted to become a cricket journalist by the unlikely, ill-thought out and dishonest method of pretending to be one.
Essentially, this was storytelling rather than standup. He sucks you into the whole premise to such an extent that you’re captivated as much by the events as you are by the humour. It hardly ever flags, and there are plenty of belly laughs as well as more subtle observations. It all comes to a depressing end when Jupp’s dream job curdles when BBC Scotland won’t return his calls, and the Western Mail loses interest when England’s sole Welsh player withdraws through injury. Stuck behind a pillar at the second Test, Jupp sums up his odd journey: “Four thousand miles to write for nobody about a thing I cannot see.”
It’s a measure of the unflappable efficiency with which we’ve been pulled into his adoration of these cricketing legends that Jupp’s eventual Gower-fatigue – “I couldn’t get rid of him!” – seemed so funny.
If only every premise – don’t get too close to your heroes – could be relayed with such wit and panache.