Review: The Oxford Revue

The Oxford Revue made their first steps on the way to the Ed­inburgh Free Fringe with a lo­cal showcase of their material.

The Oxford Revue is well known for its witty works and its latest concoction, Desperate Liaisons, did not disappoint. The audience was primed by the skilful self-depreca­tion of compère Alex Fox. Although the act began with two somewhat stock sketches, involving superhe­roes and sexual health issues, these were a gateway to their distinctive brand of comedy, with increasingly nuanced sketches. The group incor­porated ingredients of deadpan, farce and parody to produce a come­dy cocktail that goes down a treat for even the most implacable audience. Garnished with self-conscious melo­drama and risky boundary-pushing, the pieces were served with a char­acteristic kick. The group was apt at contrasting the subject matter of their sketches with the responses of their characters, particularly effec­tively in the deliciously inappropri­ate ‘parents’ evening’ scene.

What was especially striking about this act was their abil­ity to exploit the audience’s expectations to their co­medic ends. Again and again they would lull the crowd into assump­tions, only to masterfully subvert them and instead lead them down the absurd passages of their alterna­tives. This was combined with mim­icry of generic dramatic narratives, such as picking up a street-walker, whereby they played on the phrase ‘it’s my birthday’, taking it literally.

The attention to detail was like­wise impressive. They made innova­tive use of the curtain, transforming it into bed clothes at one moment and encasing themselves within it at the next to become ‘floating’ heads. The underground of the stage was used to create portals through which characters could pop up, cre­ating a sense of off-stage action.

The movement of the actors them­selves was similarly impressive, as they managed to differentiate their characters between sketches alter­ing their posture and gestures, as well as their voices. They made equal­ly inventive use of sound in their performance, using it to introduce transitions of mood. It was clear that there was a structure to the perfor­mance as a whole, as a short scene in­volving hats recurred several times forming a recognisable motif which was exploited in the closing scene to make a hilarious ending. Such origi­nality and ingenuity certainly left me tempted to make a trip to Edin­burgh this summer.