Mischief Movie Night will be fun and familiar ground for anyone who knows Mischief Theatre’s productions. For the uninitiated, this is how it works: Mischief Theatre specialise in improvised stagings where the actors construct a shambolic, daft and eclectic play on-the-spot based on audience suggestions. Mischief Movie Night iterates this premise with movies as the motif, and our experience is guided by the ‘director’ who will endeavour (and fail) to keep this farcical Frankenstein’s monster of a ‘movie’ on track. It’s terrifically entertaining nonsense.

Each staging is different so the only guarantee is that you won’t be treated to the romantic period drama and tale of an oppressive class system set in Edwardian-era Centre Parcs that I had. I do feel secure in vouching that the show will deliver on belly laughs not matter what ‘cinematic’ experience is cobbled together before your eyes. And actually, for all my extolling of how random these shows are, my viewing actually managed to have a reasonably robust narrative arc to it.

I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the greatest appeal of this show which are those inevitable moments when the actors and director are reduced to corpsing, if not outright hysterical tears. I think part of the constant atmosphere of fun present in this show comes about because everyone on stage is clearly having as much fun as the audience.

Whether you’re a die-hard fan of Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, an established patron of Mischief Theatre, or a newcomer to this improvisation stuff, I can heartily recommend this outing.   ★★★★☆   Fenton Couthurst   11^th July 2018

Read our interview with the play’s HENRY LEWIS here