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4's a Crowd (Or What Not to Do When Stuck in a Bunker During the Apocalypse)

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 4 Published: 19 Aug 2025 theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall Show Dates: 18 Aug 2025-23 Aug 2025

The Fiascoholics are bringing the world to an end with a brand-new crazy comedy 4’S A CROWD (Or What Not to Do When Stuck in a Bunker During the Apocalypse) at theSpace@Surgeons Hall.

A comedy that never takes itself seriously in the drive to provide exuberant entertainment

Which means it’s really all over before it starts, but that doesn’t stop the company from dutifully regulating admission to the bunker and devising rules for living together in an apocalyptic age, where the only survivors are the people you might have wished dead. There’s a young lad, described as just a geezer (which says it all), a zealous Welsh boy scout who certainly didn’t earn his management skills badge, a C-list actor who even at that level is overrated, and two billionaires claiming to be the same person, whose wealth has clearly increased at the cost of their brains. If these remnants of humanity are the gene bank of the future, there is little hope.

Given the choices available, who would you kick out of the bunker, as thanks to another chaotic mistake, five people have turned up to take four places? Would it make any difference anyway? But critically, the supplies of Wotsits are dwindling rapidly.

As the creators say, “The show aims to subvert conventional apocalyptic storytelling by rejecting the idea of heroic protagonists and instead throwing together a chaotic, selfish and deeply flawed group of characters… it is an ironic and witty satire – mocking elitism, privilege and performative activism.” I couldn’t have said it better myself, which is why I’ve left it to them, but I would quite simply add that it’s fabulously bonkers.

The show clearly emerges out of an imaginative, chaotic flurry of creativity, abounding in absurdity to create a comedy that never takes itself seriously in its drive to provide exuberant entertainment. If you appreciate The League of Gentlemen and Accidental Death of an Anarchist combined with the Commedia notion that character creation reigns supreme, then this is for you.

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The Blurb:

Ever wondered what happens when a LadBible-loving geezer, a pretentious C-List actor, a sadomasochist Wotsit-lover and an overbearing faux-liberal billionaire get thrown under the supervision of a Welsh boy-scout leader in one confined space after a catastrophic nuclear war? 4’s a Crowd is a new comedy play that follows the idiots left behind after the world ends. And with communications down and supplies dwindling, a deadly debate ensues: who's getting thrown out? Oh, and two of them are claiming to be the same person...