Review: Släpstick: Schërzo, Wilton’s Music Hall

Our five smartly dressed Dutch leads take to the stage with an unusual selection of facial hair, and when combined with the old fashioned decor of Wilton’s Music Hall it’s all too easy to imagine you’ve stepped in to a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It’s a delightful place to spend eighty minutes as well, and has an endearingly similar amount of charm as the French director’s films.

This is a quite unique show, a mixture of classical music, slapstick, barbershop, puppetry and dance, and that only describes about a quarter of it. Mentioning every highlight would take thousands of words as well, but what impressed the most here is how talented the performers are; they’re not only all able to play a number of instruments, but can also create music using unusual objects that will surprise and enchant.

Yet this isn’t just an aural treat, as the cast are all very strong physical comedians too. At times it feels like watching a Buster Keaton era silent film as the performers’ facial expressions provide the narrative to a sketch, or they dash all over the stage without ever crashing in to each other, except when the latter is deliberate. Even more impressive is the amount of action that takes place while they play various songs. The bouts of lunacy are perfectly timed, which given the production’s length is a quite astonishing feat and the cast show no sign of exhaustion even after eighty minutes of joyful silliness.

As well as a beautiful selection of famous music from Brahms, Schubert and Saint-Saëns, there are a few songs included, all of which show off their superb vocals, because these individuals really are multi-talented and then some. A barbershop quartet number set in a barbershop is a tour de force both musically and comically, but also fantastic is a surreal slice of oddness involving Schubert irritating Beethoven, and the combination of such ideas means loud laughs from the audience occurred frequently.

Given all of the above it feels churlish to complain, but there was the occasional skit which fell a bit flat. Most of these only involved one cast member, as the others were presumably getting their breath back, though an extended chase sequence around the auditorium was unneeded. Because of this it’s not quite a perfect show, but it comes extremely close, and just when you think you’ve seen it all and that surely they have nothing new to offer, a fresh and original sequence takes place which led to rapturous applause.

Written and performed by: Willem van Baarsen, Rogier Bosman, Sanne van Delft, Ro Krauss and Jon Bittman.

Släpstick: Schërzo runs at Wilton’s Music Hall until Saturday 12th October. Further information and booking are available here.