COMEDY
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A Betrayal of Penguins: Endangered for a Reason
Gilded Balloon Teviot

A Laurel-and-Hardyesque sketch show set on the date 22nd February.  ‘Penguins’ alludes to the fact that the 3 cast members are dressed in tuxedos, although the attractive camp actor spends much of the performance in his pants.  The 9 sketches are set in 3 locations – the Oscars, where the Penguins are involved in a plot to hide drugs in one of the Oscars; a Wedding – where the brother of the bride is coming on to the groom; and the Races – where the commentators are hiding secret spy codes in their announcements.

The acting in this performance is amazing and features mime; drag; gender play; singing; musical instruments and zombie eating.  The Zombie scene was my favourite, and although the acting was great in places I also felt it was over-acted to a great extent in others. In particular Sketch 5 involving ‘Edward and Matilde”, which sees Edward return from war to have been replaced with Arnold. Only Jim Carrey can get away with such plastic-faced antics, and the screeching of the aforementioned pant-clad gent was so high-pitched that I thought a siren was sounding.

The material is fresh and unpredictable; so wacky that we literally don’t know what is going to happen next! With deaf drug lords and ‘dick fingers’ , rose rape and ‘cat grenades‘, this is a show where anything can happen. And the sketches are all tied up neatly in a bow at the end, which has the audience on their feet clapping with laughter.  Altogether a fine way to spend an hour, and a talented display by these 3 fresh faced young things.