There’s something not quite right about the setting of Little Town Blue, a typical example of small-town America where the Mayor runs everything, and the inhabitants are just a little ‘off’.
The world Red Biscuit theatre company has conjured up for the Camden People’s Theatre, and the upcoming Brighton Fringe, was noted in one review as “part Monty Python, part League of Gentlemen”.
Little Town Blue certainly offers a healthy helping of the grotesque, as young friends Chad, Brad, and Sven take off for a drive fuelled by beer and a taste for adventure.
With a soundtrack of familiar songs designed to amuse when played, some over-the-top acting, and deliberately awful disguises, Little Town Blue covers topics ranging from haunted houses to overintelligent toddlers.
The five-strong company (Craig Unadkat, Murray Burgess, Nathan Charles, Ted Vaudrey, and Theo Moore) keeps the energy levels high. However, the show is definitely on the sillier side of comedy.
A nod to The Blues Brothers and Saturday Night Live sits against situations that could come from Black Mirror, if that show lacked its Netflix budget. It’s all, as Kenny Everett once said, done in the best possible taste …
There’s a certain charm to the idea that a mysterious water supply can cause so much havoc; meanwhile, the effects of capitalism are happily demonised. Things go wrong – props are dropped, actors corpse, voices quaver – but that adds to the general ramp-up of absurdity.
Every character the boys encounter is completely daft and out of place. There are high kicks, panto-like chases, and running jokes around attraction. It’s an all-male group, so, like the Python ‘Pepperpots’, women are offered as caricatures behind the white picket fences and in the shadows.
The Red Biscuit quintet are skilled physical theatre performers, adept at rolls, drops, sight gags, and quick changes. Nathan has a touch of Mischief’s Henry Lewis about him, while Craig has moments that recall a muted Alexei Sayle.
At 70 minutes (billed as 60), cheap and cheerful Little Town Blue sails close to outstaying its welcome, but the quality of the writing and the commitment of the company pull them through to the finish line.
3 and a half stars.
Little Town Blue is at Camden People’s Theatre tonight, then at Brighton Fringe on 2-3 May: details here.