Comedy is a hard thing to get right. It is not easy making people laugh. It is even harder making lots of people laugh, all at the same time. With that said, Mischief Theatre Company manage it time and time again over the course of their play “The Comedy about a Bank Robbery”.
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery has not been on tour before, having had runs in London and Paris so far. It starts its UK tour at Birmingam Rep and is running until the 8th September. You will need to get a move on if you are going to catch this and if you do get the chance to see this play, I would highly recommend it because I think the tickets will go fast. They deserve to.
It tells the story of Mitch Ruscetti who breaks out of prison in Canada with a fiendish plan to rob the First Bank of Minneapolis with the help of his fiancee Caprice whose father handily works at the bank.
However, Caprice has not been idle while Mitch has been banged up and has recently got involved with Sam, who gets roped into the whole caper after a fantastically worked scene involving all three, some seagulls, an unconscious man in a cupboard, a toolbox and a stick on moustache. Trust me. It is amazing.
It is not very often that the stage design of a play is praised, but in this case it is really worth mentioning. The design brings forth a number of locations with ease, seamlessly transitioning during song numbers (A big shout out to Ashley Tucker for her wonderfully powerful rockabilly singing voice).
The shame of it is that I cannot mention too much for fear of spoiling your first experience of the settings. I would love to say exactly why I loved it, but I can’t. All I can say is that when you see the hugely imaginative and daring set up midway through the second act you will be astounded.
The cast work their socks off throughout the performance. Snappy, fast dialogue is the order of the day, coupled with riotous slapstick comedy and absurdism. The “straight man” of the piece is Mitch played by Liam Jeavons, but even as a straight man he has a brilliant comedy aspect with his timing and facial expressions.
Julie Frith who plays Caprice in her professional stage debut, is a great physical comedy actress, her face expressing emotions from glee, to terror, to anger with huge range.
My absolute favourite character was hapless Warren Slax, played by Jon Trenchard. Warren is the butt of many of the jokes in the play, innocently bumbling his way through the acts getting in the way and inadvertantly assisting the gang in the process.
Another star of the show for me was Sean Carey who played Sam Monaghan. Sean evokes the spirit of Lee Evans in his movements and expressions. He is the focal point of the show and clearly revelling in his role.
In fact all of the cast are obviously having a ball in this production, not least George Hannigan who playes Everyone Else, as in every “smaller” part that needs playing across the stage. His variety of roles included the bank security guard, Caprice’s various admirers, sometimes all in one scene. One in particular, he has the stage to himself as he plays all three of Caprice’s admirers in an argument with each other, seamlessly transitioning from one to the next, never missing a beat and keeping the audience entranced. Looking at the program George trained as a Clown and you can see the influence in his performances.
There is an excellent running gag where poor hapless Officer Shuck played by Killian Macardle, is berated over the phone by a parade of superiors, each more savage and ridiculous than the last. Look out for the culmination of this joke, because the final punchline had me close to tears.
David Coomber plays Mitch’s hapless and excitable sidekick, Cooper. Endlessly enthusiastic Cooper serves as the foil to a lot of the absurb humour and really reminded me of Stephen Stucker from the classic comedy Airplane!, with his over the top delivery and manic manner.
The basic plot is wafer thin and has plot holes you could drive a getaway car through………..but we’re not here for the plot. We’re here for the gags, the smirks, the jokes and the laugh a minute delivery and that is definitely what you get here. This is the funniest play I have seen yet and if another one is going to be able to top it, its going to have a very hard job.
The run-time of the play was 2 and half hours which includes a 15 minute interval, and this just flew by for us, we were having so much fun along with everyone else in The Rep. The cast got a huge round of applause at the end with a few people in the crowd giving them a standing ovation. It really was THAT good. Go and see it. Your funny bone deserves it.
Tickets available from The Rep, starting from £15 here: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/the-comedy-about-a-bank-robbery.html
Disclaimer: We were invited along as part of the Press Evening in return for an honest review. We gave our honest thoughts. It’s the best comedy we have seen in the theatre EVER.
Photographs are by and with thanks to Robert Day.