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Pleasance Courtyard – Forth
This is our second year going to see Recent Cutbacks, the crew who brought us Hold Onto Your Butts and Fly, You Fools in previous seasons. So when we saw they were back with a new one, we were straight in the queue. This time round it’s Kevin, a full shot-for-shot parody of Home Alone, done in an hour flat with five actors and a Foley artist.
I’ll be honest, I went in expecting to be howling. The previous two shows had that laugh-a-minute energy, brilliant comic timing and genuinely inventive use of sound and props, so my expectations were sky high. And look, it’s not that it’s bad. The production values are still there, the performances are still strong, but for me something about this one didn’t land in the same way.
I think it comes down to how much of the show plays out on the projector. So much of what made the earlier shows sing was watching the cast physically wrangle the chaos in front of you, and here a chunk of that energy gets funnelled through the screen instead. It’s clever, it’s well put together, but it just doesn’t hit the same as watching a group of people and a mountain of props recreate a living breathing T-Rex in a tiny venue.
Don’t get me wrong, I still had a good time and I’ll happily tell people to go see it. It’s just that when your first two shows set the bar at “amazeballs,” the third one landing at “pretty good” feels like a bit of a comedown. That said, this company could stage a reading of the phone book and I’d still turn up, because they clearly know their craft.
Three stars out of five. Still worth your time, just don’t go in expecting lightning to strike a third time.