REVIEW | ShakeItUp: The Improvised Shakespeare Show
Written by Cathie
Disclaimer: gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
A mere 20-minute boat ride away from the famous Shakespeare’s Globe lies the Turbine Theatre tucked under the railway arches near Battersea Power station. Here lies the Shake it Up Shakespeare team who wish to give Shakespeare a ‘helping hand’ by writing some new modern masterpieces. This hilariously talented cast of 6 works well together to bring Shakespearean prose and plot to life.
As you walk into the theatre space, the mood is set well by the medieval lute versions of modern songs including ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Taylor Swift and ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ by Shakira. If you’re canny enough to come early to the show, you have the option of writing lines for the cast which will be used at random in the later show. Some audience favourite lines included ‘thou givest me the ick’, ‘thou art not the father of my child’ and ‘me thinks you should get tested too’.
The first ten minutes of this one-hour-long show are two cast members warming up the audience and finding out if we choose a comedy, tragedy or history, with its frames and cliches explained. The cast then uses shout outs from the audience to decide the names of the characters, setting and romantic angst.
Our story tonight was the historical play ‘Lucy and the Submarine’. The evil Lord Tewsbury is viciously scheming against Lord BollingBrook and King Killian in order to overthrow the submarine leadership and victoriously paint it Beatles yellow. This is whilst King Killian wages war against Prague but wants to also conquer Sainsbury’s in order to obtain the best meal deal in the land. The plot was full of brilliant one liners, fairly intricate scheming and unexpected romance and murder. A perfect modern rendition of a Shakespeare history play.
The completely improvised nature means that even the actors themselves don’t quite know what will happen next. This gives an urgency and spark to the performance and the audience feels as much a part of the story and performance as the actors themselves. The audience was in complete stitches of laughter throughout.
I have not laughed so much in a long time. This is definitely a brilliant show for long time lovers of Shakespeare but is also accessible to those who know very little of it. That’s a difficult balance to achieve but they succeed with remarkable grace and wit.
Overall I really enjoyed this experience and I think the Bard himself would have loved its joyful exuberance, bawdy wit and dedication to his timeless material. I definitely can’t wait to go back and see what they come up with next!
At Turbine Theatre until 4 November.
★ ★ ★ ★
