There can’t be a more pleasant way to spend a sunny Friday evening than in Little Venice. Whether it’s a stroll past all the Regency mansions set in their leafy promenades, enjoying a Mojito on the terrace of the Waterway bar watching the boats go by, eating outside in the Boat House restaurant that sits on the canal or grabbing a quick pint in the Bridge House followed by a show upstairs in the Canal Cafe Theatre.
Call me indulgent but I did all of these things last Friday and loved every minute of it. The theatre is the perfect place to round off an evening in Little Venice and you can grab a bite to eat before or after the show in the pub below. It supports new writing mainly by young comedians and usually in the form of short plays and sketch shows.
News Revue, now in its 29th year, is the world’s longest running live comedy show and holder of the Guinness World Record. It is held every evening in the theatre from Thursday-Sunday and changes its cast every six weeks. It consists of a team of two boys and two girls performing a series of fast-paced sketches and songs based on anything in the current news, from celebrities to politics and sports. It has picked up a Fringe First Award and the coveted Perrier nomination in Edinburgh, received many glowing reviews and helped begin the careers of Rory Bremner, Michelle Collins, Josie Lawrence & Bill Bailey.
Situated above the Bridge House pub, the theatre is a dark, smallish room with several candle-lit tables of differing sizes split over two levels. The show opens quickly with a musical medley of 30's-style songs about the credit crunch. Many songs are revised classics. Paul Simon's Call Me Al is turned into a number about Alistair Darling: "I will need a bodyguard, raising tax on alcohol/Raising pension funding will kill you Al'. Other highlights are a song about the new Mayor of London set to the Morrissey song Panic. Helen Colby does a very good impression of 'Borrissey' and sings such lyrics as: "So there's panic on the streets of Finchley/When the London mayor's a fat clown/Hang the BJ, hang the BJ..."
Some sketches included Rev Ian Paisley as the new spokesman for Cillit Bang: "Bang and 37 years later, I'm gone!" and a series of Shakespeare quotes recited by John Prescott as Macbeth: "Is this a burger I see before me?" (followed by him throwing it up) and Gordon Brown as Hamlet, pondering on the 10p income tax band: "10p or not 10p, that is the question."
The whole show lasted about an hour. It was slick, energetic and most of all, funny. The current cast of Katie Cotterill, Helen Colby, Will Allen and Christopher Doyle were incredibly impressive and very competent at dancing, singing and acting. If you're looking for something else to do in Little Venice that doesn't involve walks and barges, I would highly recommend popping in to see News Revue. This is satire at its best.
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