The Cambridge Footlights might be Britain’s most famous sketch comedy troupe. The university society claim such alumni as Stephen Fry and Sue Perkins and are a regular presence at the Fringe. They return this year with two shows, the Free Footlights hour and this, their Dream Sequence tour. Five committed young actors (it is hard to believe it is just five, they play so many characters), who study everything from Music to Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, play out a series of hilarious sketches, one after the other. Their energy and enthusiasm never wavers and the pieces are polished, clever and range from chuckle-eliciting to guffaw-inducing.

Each performer adds something different to the act. True, Sam Knights steals the show with his ridiculous face and ability to be unashamedly over-the-top, but all the cast show obvious comic talent and great skill at imitating voices and creating characters. John Tothill and Henry Wilkinson, who seem constantly to be playing old women, are perfect character comedians, just as the two female Footlights, Ania Magliano-Wright and Ruby Keane, make an excellent team.

What one could either love or criticise about this show is that it is extremely British. From a parody of David Attenborough and a reworking of the Archers to Alan Bennett’s love for Maggie Smith and a mention of the Railway Children, this show references many mainstays of British culture and riffs on Britain’s government and education systems as well. To someone who is not from here or has not lived here very long, many of the sketches in this show – though certainly not all – will probably hold little humour, which makes one wonder how suited it is to an international tour. But to those who get the references, the whimsical spins on familiar characters and stories will be entertaining and intriguing.

Though the seating in the Ace Dome at the Pleasance Dome, most of which is not raked, is not ideal for shorter audience members not sat in the front row, the venue has an old-school comedy club feel that complements the show. There is something so exciting about seeing a small cast becoming completely different people every few minutes, sometimes seconds, and these five Footlights are naturals at it.

The Cambridge Footlights Tour: Dream Sequence is playing the Pleasance Dome until August 28.

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Beatrix Swanson Scott

Beatrix grew up in Germany with American parents and caught the theatre bug when she went to see Wicked at age 13. She now studies Liberal Arts at King's College London. Most of the time, she can be found rehearsing for the next musical, opera, play or choir concert or in meetings at the National Gallery, where she is a Young Producer. And of course, she spends every free evening at the theatre.

2 Responses

  1. Jack K.

    I saw this show today and would question why you separated two of the five performers from the other three:- ‘just as the two female Footlights, Ania Magliano-Wright and Ruby Keane, make an excellent team’.

    If, in 2017, you consider it a novelty to be a female comedy writer/performer, then perhaps you should not be a reviewer. In this show, with males playing female roles and females playing male roles, and all five actors intermingling and acting as one, not two teams, I do not understand why you segregated Ruby and Ania. The five performers/writers are a team, regardless of gender.

    • Beatrix Swanson Scott

      I separated them because, as you will have seen, many of the sketches were performed solely by male or female cast members. I do not consider it a novelty to be a female performer and have never made the slightest indication to that effect.