What was it Margaret from The Apprentice said about Edinburgh University this year? 'Perhaps it's not what it used to be...'. I shudder to think what she'd say about Oxford and Cambridge after watching this less-than-stellar production from 'Two Shades of Blue', a collaboration between both the Universities Light Entertainment Societies.The rough concept of 'Once Upon a Time: Naughty Fairytales Your Mother Never Told You' is to take some well know nursery characters, such as Prince Charming, Pinocchio and Puss in Boots, sex them up a bit and stick them in an adult adventure. As show ideas go, this is pretty good, and you'd think there's plenty of fun to be had in this world. However, fun this show certainly is not, with this production failing to amuse on almost every level.The opening song and dance routine is lacklustre, without even a backing track to sing along to. The students lack any kind of conviction in the characters they're portraying, almost looking embarrassed to be on stage in the first place. There's no voice projection, no signs of any stage blocking, no set (despite several messy scene changes?), but worst of all, no attempt to get any laughs from the audience.The script isn't all that bad, with some nice ideas such as the Prince Charming who thinks he's James Bond, and the smug 'Mirror Mirror on the wall' who only answers to questions that rhythm. Unfortunately the cast fail to breathe any life into these characters with no enthusiasm on display whatsoever. Only one actor comes out of this Titanic mess with any dignity. Prince Charming (sorry, no cast list given) is at least aware he's in a comedy, and tries to raise a few laughs with a decent performance. But without any backup from his cast mates, he's fighting a losing battle.Some of the dialog really resonated with the audience though, with 'Oh it's hopeless, we're never going to get out of here', and 'I can't believe I'm still stuck in this horrible room when I could be doing something exciting' prompting eight people to leave.The cast even had the cheek to sing about 'going to the pub to get drunk' in the second song of the night, which thankfully was the closing number. The only way they could redeem themselves would be to take the remaining audience to the pub with them, buy several drinks, and say 'Sorry'.
