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 |  | Review by Paul Bradley, site-user
The Comedy Store Players are five courageous performers willing to enter the stage with no script, hoping to work upon the unpredictable output of the audience,
On 25 February, in the Swan Theatre, with its exquisite acoustics, Richard Vranch entered the stage and 'explained the rules' to the keepers of his future material and tested them by asking the audience to shout out a type of film or type of play or an emotion.
For those of you familiar with the Comedy Stores in Manchester and London, you would know that this was going to be the format for the different types of 'games' for the evening.
 ...the improvisation gave the crowd fits of rib-tickling laughter.
 | 听 | Paul Bradley
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Richard introduced his fellow performers, Neil Mullarkey, Andy Smart, Lee Simpson and Josie Lawrence, all of whom many people would recognise from various different TV and radio appearances.
Richard started with the Story Game, asking the audience to shout out a historical character - "Skippy"(?) - and a household object - "a vacuum cleaner". He then would point at one of his colleagues to start the story involving Skippy and the vacuum cleaner then quickly point to another to continue it. If there was a pause in the story the crowd would have to shout out "Die".
You get the idea. It worked well and the improvisation gave the crowd fits of rib-tickling laughter.
| 听 |  | The Swan Theatre, taken over for one night by The Comedy Store Players
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Following this were a number of other hilarious games, including the Position Game. Asking for two positions - "a curtsey" and "a press up" - two characters would improvise a story starting in the said positions until one of the others shouted, "Freeze".
At this point they would tap one of the frozen performers and would take over their position and carry on the story from that position.
One of my favourite parts of the evening was the scene with two of the performers where one talks about an animal and a sport (a Llama and Cricket) in a pseudo foreign language (Uzbekistani) and the other translates. Both performers would constantly surprise the onlookers with something the other inferred.
The performance was full of such games that if you did replicate at a party, you could only strive to meet the quality and spontaneity of the Comedy Store performers.
The performance ended on a high when they asked the audience for the final time for a Shakespeare play that could have been a sequel. The Comedy Store Players appropriately selected "A Merchant of Birmingham"...
| 听 | Paul Bradley
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This was demonstrated particularly when they delivered a type of story - "Horror" - and a story title - "The Wind That Blew Too Hard" - as a musical. Richard played the keyboard in a number of different styles within the improvisation where the others had to sing along.
Whilst this part of the show I felt was drawn out longer than required, it was at such stages where the subtlety of their performance shined through.
The performance ended on a high when they asked the audience for the final time for a Shakespeare play that could have been a sequel. The Comedy Store Players appropriately selected "A Merchant of Birmingham" and subsequently played their improvised Shakespearen roles in a brummy accent with lines such as, "Didst thou tread down the Hagley Road to meet thoust?"
Compared to your usual stand up comedy, the evening was a pleasant surprise. It was a suitably fine show to complement the RSC's, "Week with Laughter" season.
Week with Laughter
Stratford's Week with Laughter season features top acts Mark Thomas, Rhona Cameron, Ed Byrne, Richard Herring, Ross Noble, Daniel Kitson and The Comedy Store Players appearing at The Swan.
Read reviews and find out more about the shows by following the links on the left.
For booking and ticket details, please follow the link on the left to the RSC's Week With Laughter website.
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