Show Rating:

Viv and Fizz is a comedy about optimism and pessimism. I found this out by reading the blurb, as it was certainly not clear in the show.

The only optimism involved was mine, the vain hope that at some stage I would be released from the venue and be able to block this hour out of my mind.

Slick costuming and staging kept me awake and, at first, disguised the amateur script and acting. But, ultimately, predictable storylines and gags led to the train wreck that this show is.

Small scenes among the body of the show baffled me. Why did we need to see earlier incarnations of Viv and Fizz as Elizabeth I and Mary, or as a parliamentarian and a royalist the night before battle? I would not have minded it they had had purpose, but like the rest of the show, attempts at humour and sharp ideas were misguided and failed miserably.

Although both actors commanded the stage, this was due to overacting than any subtler skill. The result was that both characters were one-dimensional, with Viv gazing wisftully into the distance a lot and Fizz bouncing up and down like a human pogo stick.

Imitating the Joanna Lumley sneer in a desperate effort to manufacture comedy falls flat without the comic timing or originality to pull it off.

Overall the ideas were ill-thought-out and came across as a collection of scenes with no conclusion and no humour.

Reviewed by: Rosie Carnahan