A surreal but highly entertaining gallop through the slightly crazed world of three crook cooks Summary
Rating
Excellent
Ready, Steady, Crooks is an hour of guaranteed joyous, absurd escapism. The plot is loosely based on three cook criminals – two men who are the adopted fathers of the third – and the younger man’s journey to find out what became of his mother. It’s a surreal coming of age story, involving time travel, cloning, and semen which takes you from the casinos of Las Vegas via the jungle to a sticky-floored nightclub in the heart of London. It’s very funny, with humour ranging from slapstick and clowning to witticisms about Gen Z and the wokerati.
The plot is somewhat freewheeling and has a stream of consciousness feel. Chef, Sous and their adopted son Pot Wash (who spend their time stealing high value cooking ingredients) explore their unusual but affectionate relationship, explaining the disappearance of Pot’s time travelling, anaconda-fighting mother, before taking him to a nightclub for a formative encounter with a woman, which ends up with his first act of self pleasure. It’s hard to believe, but the story gets even stranger and more surreal from there.
The anarchic nature of the piece works well with a responsive fringe audience. From the moment you enter, the actors greet you confidently in character, ad libbing and setting the scene and tone, but without being intimidatingly intrusive. The plot races along, pausing intermittently for some rather odd dance sequences, but frankly with such fast paced humour and plot lines as slippery as the aforementioned anaconda, it was good to get a bit of a pause at points. As well as the energetic physical acting – which left the actors dripping in sweat on the hot summer night I saw it – the show uses minimal props and staging. It is well executed and slickly produced, with bursts of music, dance and physical comedy helping it bounce from crazy encounter to crazy encounter.
Kudos to the excellent cast and creative team Benjamin McMahon, Sam Stafford and Luke Clarence Johnson who look like they’re enjoying themselves as much as the audience clearly were. They expertly and amusingly cycle through a number of character changes. The plot is, in places, so chaotically stupid it doesn’t bear much scrutiny, but it’s blasted at you at such a pace and with such enthusiasm that, to be honest, you probably won’t care. Ready Steady Crooks is surprising, sweet, funny, engaging and a bit odd – like the best British comedy.
Written by Benjamin McMahon, Sam Stafford and Luke Clarence Johnson
You can read more about this show in our recent interview with the team here.
Ready, Steady, Crooks has now finished its run at Hen and Chickens Theatre. It will be on at the Edinburgh Fringe, Thistle Theatres at Greenside @Riddles Court from 18-23 August.
