There Will Be Cake @ Omnibus Theatre, Clapham

There Will Be Cake

Marcus Brigstocke, Rachel Parris, Pippa Evans and Paul Foxcroft

So three evenings later after singing happy birthday to Nick Cave at Bournemouth here we are sitting in the audience at Clapham’s Omnibus Theatre singing it again to a woman called Clara whose birthday it is. Identified by MB and PF in their introduction to the evenings improvised comedy, the backdrop of a table laden with cakes’ party iced biscuits and balloons and bunting hanging from the ceiling, being the rather obvious clue.

A chance discovery the day before, of first the venue, and then the show has brought us here at 9pm on a wet early autumnal evening with friends we met earlier in the Sun pub opposite and where we also encountered the four performers having a pre show drink and possibly mapping out directions the show could take.

This was our first time for improvised comedy and had no idea as to where it would lead or indeed go. We had seen Rachel Parris earlier in the year at the soho theatre for her Best Laid Plans show which we had thoroughly enjoyed.  Brigstocke we had seen and heard on the tv/radio many times but never in the flesh. The other two probably had seen but their names did not ring any bells.

What followed was a hit and miss of improvisation, sometimes very funny like the culinary discovery of a sunday roast dinner and the two women gyrating in Brixton to then be confronted by a local of many years wondering what the hell they were doing. The sketch was replayed later with Shoreditch as the location but with the point quickly made, it terminated. The uber journey to Scotland was good also but the trying to become Scottish was somewhat flat.

Halfway in, a slight pause was taken when the four distributed party cake and biscuits amongst the audience which had its own amusement value.

Nevertheless, an excellent hour's entertainment and one that will be repeated.

But the question still hangs in the air, what was planned and what was improvised? How much of it were they trying out to find its way back in some later show? How much of it was just training to sharpen their skills for later performances? And how much of it was just for the simple pleasure of performing in a venue no doubt local to where they live without the spotlight of the west end on them?

The venue must however sort out the acoustic isolation between the performance area and the adjacent, rather pleasant bar. Would not take much.