The Comedy About Spies Review

Finally, a Mischief Comedy show with a short name! I'm still going to shorten it to CAS though, because laziness.

Unlike my previous Mischief reviews, this review will try to steer clear of spoilers, at least major ones in context. Fair warning though, I will be spoiling some of the major physical gags, although not the context in which they appear. 

Access - With this being The View From Lower Down, we can't have a review without first discussing the accessibility of the theatre. The access to the theatre is fine; it just involves going in through a different entrance with a long internal ramp which would scare some wheelchair users, but I know the best thing is to only allow one wheelchair on at a time. It could probably take more, but that makes it less scary.

Once into the auditorium, the accessible seats were inside a box, which I'm convinced made us look like Statler and Waldorf, but my brother wasn't convinced. Unfortunately, we didn't get anyone from outside to confirm either way.  

Actual Footage

Screensaver - Once into the auditorium, There was projected footage onto a screen at the back of the stage of the CAS logo, with the letters in the word SPIES moving around like some kind of screensaver from the 90s (I was there; I know). There's no real reason to mention this; it's just something I remember. This is, however, a good time to talk about the music, which before and during the show was very reminiscent of 1960s spy movies, so credit to Jon Fiber for that.

Opening Scene - The opening scene is very funny but bears little relevance to the plot. It's almost exactly the same as the Royal Variety Performance sketch, but the ending is different. Instead of getting A Man to Hold Him, the scene ends with a bomb going off. This is not a spoiler as it's in the trailer.

I thought the 'Raise the alarm' gag was very reminiscent of Police Squad! (my blog on the subject - new trailer), and I thought the rest of the show would have a similar theme, but it took it in a completely different direction.

Also, the 'look at these slides' gag (another Police Squad! style joke) was missing.

Character names - I mention this for three reasons:

1. I couldn't remember the name of any character throughout the show, which is probably at least mostly my fault. Just to see if I can, I'll try to name them all in no particular order now: Agents X, Y, U, I,  C, O, R, T, E, E, E and E, Elena, Douglas Woodbead (the actor, not the cricketer), Sergei, Mr Tipton, (remembers the name of all of Dave Hearn's Mischief characters - even Paul - except the relevant one)*, his mother**, Bernard, Rosemary (the woman not the herb)

2. I originally thought that because of the multiple castings in the scene (even in that five minute scene, Chris Leask plays 2 different characters), there would be lots of multiple castings through the rest of the show, similar to TCAaBR (if you don't know what that stands for, look it up; I'm not going to type the whole thing)

3. I thought that, also like TCAaBR, that the character names would lead to pun based confusion (see Robin Freeboys), as Woodbead in particular sounds like a name designed for that purpose. Of course, as Mischief scripts are constantly evolving, they might have removed these jokes in favour of some funnier ones.

*Lance***

**Janet***

***I looked them up

Bond - One of the characters is an actor auditioning to play James Bond (also not a spoiler as it's in the synopsis), and a running gag is him saying iconic catchphrases wrong (agent oo seven). Some audience members might think that this is strange as everyone knows the pronunciation of these words and phrases, but the show is set in 1961, one year before the first Bond movie came out. This is the same reason Hermione's name is spelled phonetically in the fourth Harry Potter book.

Rope gag - I wrote this in my notes but can't talk about it without ruining the joke so I won't. If you haven't already seen it, book tickets here to find out what it is 

AccessAble - soon after the rope gag was the interval (not a spoiler because why would it be), when I had an interaction with an usher who must have been very confused. I apologise sincerely. The card I gave you was for a site called AccessAble. They come to assess locations such as theatres for accessibility. Unlike similar sites, they are not crowdsourced so professionals have to come out. 

On the card was a QR code which you can use to apply to get the Noel Coward theatre assessed. A review will then be posted on the AccessAble website and app to be viewed by audience members with disabilities.

Lots of colours - A brightly coloured set? No. A brightly coloured prop? No. A long monologue by Dave Hearn? Yes. At one point, Dave's character has to work out when and where SPOILERS is happening, so he needs to take a list of all the possible places it can be (six hotel rooms, the lobby, a shower, the car park or the pool), when it is happening (5:11, 11:09, 25:11, others) and what SPOILERS will be wearing (a green or yellow scarf, a blue, yellow or green jacket, blue, black, brown or grey shoes or a shower curtain). Dave lists all of these possibilities in one long monologue which he calls "A massive speech of colours and numbers". Watch the full bit here (if the timestamp doesn't work, go to 9:33).

And you thought "A sinister minister illicitly solicited a conspirator" was hard to say!

Physical gags - Australia - This was another hilarious physical gag which I can't explain without spoiling anything so I won't, except to say that a lot of safety precautions were implemented at an impressive speed.

Remember the spy? - My brother pointed this out. A lot of confusing stuff goes on throughout the play, but this distracts from the main issue raised in the opening scene of there being a mole at MI6. Because of this, the twist apparently comes out of nowhere. And when I say twist...

More double crosses than a Union Jack factory - I invented that phrase because there isn't a better comparative that already exits. The final scene is on a pier, because of course it is. During this scene, almost everyone, including the non-spies, turns out to be a double agent.

My review?

The Comedy About Spies is another hit from Mischief Theatre and I hope it finds a more permanent home, and goes on tour soon. 5 months is way too short  However, I do wish that some of the best gags weren't included in the behind the scenes videos!