Three Writers Walk Into a Forest, Theatre 503 – Review

Pros: A variety of sketches with some great comic characters.

Cons: The jokes raised a chuckle, but didn’t bring out the big laughs.
Three Writers Walk Into a Forest, Theatre 503 – Review

Summary

Rating

60

Good

Take some friends and have a fun evening of cheeky fairytales and drinks in the pub.

Three Writers Walk Into a Forest: An evening of twisted fairytale sketches taking a fresh and cheeky look at Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella.

As the title suggests, the evening consists of sketches from three different writers. In this case Pippa Evans, Ian Dagger and Rosalind Adler, with Rosalind Adler and Pippa Evans also performing. The opening sketch is Jack and the Beanstalk – Jack keeps popping up the stalk to have some fun with the Giant’s giant wife. Other sketches include a dopey 14 year old Red Riding Hood; Cinderella many years after her Happily Ever After; a wolf doing stand up; and a touching fairytale for desperate singles.

Most of the sketches take the form of monologues directly addressed to the audience, which can sometimes result in the text seeming to be more important than the performance. I did at times find myself wondering whether I would prefer to enjoy some of these stories on the page rather than as pieces of theatre. That said, there were definitely some great performances with Pippa Evan’s hilarious characters Red and Wolfie being particular favourites of mine. The gruesome giants are also very entertaining and Rosalind Adler is a perfectly charming princess as Cinderella. The writing is fun and lighthearted, and although these are not ground-breaking adaptations of classic tales they will still give you something to chuckle about.

Anna Lewis’ design is simple, but works well with book pages bordering the space. I could have happily seen those pages extend upwards to also form the tree silhouettes lining the walls. The show is presented at Theatre 503, an intimate pub theatre space which unlike some of London’s other intimate venues manages to get you close to the action without feeling too intimidated.

This is a comedy show and whilst it raised a few chuckles for me, many of the jokes felt a little too basic to bring out the big laughs. That said, they certainly had my fellow audience members giggling away throughout so perhaps it is my sense of humour that is to blame! I’d suggest that this is a great show to go and see with friends. Theatre 503’s location above The Latchmere pub offers all the ingredients for a great evening out. Drinks with friends followed by some grown-up fairytales, what more could you want?

This is a pleasant evening of fun and cheeky fairytales with a liberal seasoning of school-boy humour to top it off.

Writers: Pippa Evans, Ian Dagger, Rosalind Adler
Director: Kirsty Bennett
Booking Until: 18 July 2015
Box Office: 020 7978 7040
Booking Link: https://theatre503.com/