Tom Taylor returns with his one person particularly posh whodunnit featuring Charles Montague, a posh dandy womanizer who is one of those people who you can’t work out quite why they are a detective, but they suit the role completely, having the voice and velvet smoking jacket for it.
Taylor’s overall performance is strong and he comes across as a very confident, funny performer, with good comic timing and an ability to own the stage well.
There are some cracking jokes, the script is very well written with a lot of satisfyingly clever wordplay, stream of consciousness absurdist imagery and meta-theatrical gags throughout, the show’s strong-points. Even though it is made a joke of, the similarity between all of the characters becomes a little wearing to the point where you wonder why Taylor is attempting such a multi-roling feat. Despite this, Taylor’s overall performance is strong and he comes across as a very confident, funny performer, with good comic timing and an ability to own the stage well.
The Game’s a Foot, Try the Fish has been praised in the past for being a very silly and very funny show, and whilst this is certainly still true, this performance seemed to rather lack the polish which a show of this calibre should have. As a preview for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and with a sudden vocal impairment that threw him, it is understandable that the show should seem under-rehearsed. Nevertheless, when Taylor is in his flow, the scene transitions are done so quickly and with so little signposting that the plot was hard to follow, and the story itself, whilst meant to be silly, make a little too little sense to be completely enjoyable; you need to remain fully on the ball to keep track of what’s going on.
Overall, whatever happens though, it’s an amusing show: with Taylor you’re left in safe hands to have a good time, whether he’s on script or ad libbing his way through it; though he needn’t ad lib – he is good, the show is good, and is stronger with less breaking of character. Spiffing fun!
