In a tiny venue, with an even smaller audience Off the Cuff was faced with a difficult challenge for their late night improvised comedy act. The show, which consisted of four performers and one narrator, took locations from the audience to create an imagined village. Given the suggestions; for example, an ice skating rink, there was potential for the piece to magic the audience outside the four walls of the auditorium. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The sketches, which were performed in pairs, were long and drawn out, and at times painful to watch. A scene could only end once the bell on a small desk downstage had been rung by the narrator, and this did not happen quickly enough.
The performers worked hard, but their lack of character, consistency and precision meant their performances fell flat. The scenes were repetitive, self indulgent and lacked any real sense of place. The storyline emerged through weakly interlinking characters, continuing from one scenario to the next. Yes, this meant the piece was structurally linked, but at a cost. Scenarios too often became tired and struggled to gain laughs from the audience. Shorter scenes, at a quicker pace, with more audience interaction would have benefited the improvised style and may have injected life into the performances. The piece has the potential to be so much more, but a lack of connection both between the actors and the audience prevented the piece from taking flight and really putting the village on the map.
However, the show ended nicely with an improvised Country and Western guitar song which included the entire cast. This rhyming song recapped all of the scenarios presented during the show and tied any loose ends of the piece. The use of live music heightened the energy of the piece, leaving the audience on a comedic high. Perhaps, the incorporation of live music could have been used more throughout the piece to drive the performances forward and break from scenes. Overall, Off the Cuff was disappointing and The Village they presented even more so.
