This is a one hour, non-stop romp, targeted at the tweenies of today. Presented by fledgling company, Quick Duck Theatre (Winners of Best Ensemble at the National Student Drama Festival and created by New Diorama Theatre), this three-person fashion / espionage comedy is fast-paced and quite kooky.
Given two short lengths of thick cardboard tubing and two different coloured pieces of material as we sat at our places by a member of the cast, and also asked to wear our individual spy name badges it was clear that this was a show full of audience participation.Sadly, their target audience was in very short supply for this performance. Out of around 30 audience members I clocked only 4 children. Fortunately however, the adults were game enough to play along and that side of the show didn't fall flat, as it could so easily have done; but it didn't give me the opportunity of gauging how this show would be reacted to by their intended audience / age group.
Advertised as 'The Mighty Boosh' meets 'Devil Wears Prada'; the show is an interactive adventure comedy which the children will believe they are having an input into the story-line.
The story, if you are not following extremely attentively, can become a little obfuscated, due to both the speed at which this play rattles along, and that the three performers take on many varied characters throughout, often changing character seemingly mid-sentence. The problem endemic here was that some of those changes were not quite defined enough.
Expensive clothing has been being stolen from Fashion Shows world-wide and no-one knows who the culprit is. Enter the Fashion Spies, who are given the mission of apprehending the culprit and saving fashion forever. We, the audience, are of course roped in as 'new recruit' spies to help them in their quest, with frequent use of both cardboard tubes and material. The story doesn't really quite go in the direction you think it will however, as it turns out the thief is an alien (!) thus giving the company an opportunity to turn the play into a semi-humorous lecture on the environment and ecology.
The show is contemporary, up-beat, slick and high energy, with the three young performers truly giving their alls to this fringe show full of modern beat music, song, comedy, and strong LGBTQ undertones. The cast is Jack Davies, Eleanor Rattenbury, and Abigail Greenwood, and was directed by Hannah Birkin.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 17.9.21
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