The Wedding Reception

The Wedding Reception is billed as an immersive comedy. It starts in the courtyard outside the venue where members of the cast engage with the waiting ‘guests’ (the audience). This is an impossible task with a full house though, leaving some confused and others to chat among themselves. Next comes the dining - yes, it is a dining experience too, with a starter, a main course and a wedding cake included with your ticket.

Conflict and disagreements warm you to the group

The serving of drinks and food is very efficient, and is provided by experienced (and real) service staff. The cast have several characters to portray and they interact well in an extremely limited performance area in a crowded restaurant. All the wedding stereotypes are here, and the cast try to get the audience involved with varying degrees of success. They attempt to cram a full wedding experience into their two-hour slot.

I would have preferred a tighter performance time as two hours is a lot to fill even with an eating break. Scripting could have been tighter too as some gaps arose but as this work develops an element of improv is evident (and expected) with more laughs coming from the slapstick in a true Whitehall farce situation. Conflict and disagreements warm you to the group (as at any wedding) and they do engage with the audience in the space available. The show features Danielle Briers, Ben Hood, Rebecca Norris and David Tremaine and comes from the company who produced Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience – which has run successfully at this venue for several years.