REPORT

In today's finals of The Sitcom Trials at London's Soho Theatre, Sweet As won Best Script. Best Actor went to the male cast of Sweet As. Best Actress went to the female cast of Sweet As.

Creator of Sitcom Trials Kev F Sutherland MCs today's finals. Producers of the current season of Sitcom Trials are Declan Hill and Simon Wright. Judges of the finals are Jamie Glazebrook and Geoff Posner. Today's audience includes agent Janet Glass (Eric Glass Ltd), agent Rob Sandy (RBM Actors), comedian and actor Andy Smart (Comedy Store Players), actor Jacqueline Wood

Each entry to Sitcom Trials is 15 minutes long with a requirement for a beginning, middle and end. The judges awarded a first prize and did not place the 3 co-finalists in an order. Listing them in running order, the co-finalists (with writer's names) are: The Good Guide by Sara Pascoe, Troubleshooters by John Hill, Monster Biscuits by Kevin Borrass & John Hill.

Sitcoms in running order with actors in alpha order:

The Good Guide by Sara Pascoe features actors Nick Ewans (Dave), Jessica Fostekew (Connie), Cariad Lloyd (Sarah), Fraser Millward (Phil Bointer), Steve Mould (Chris); director is Nick Ewans. Sarah is a trainee London bus tour-guide in Phil Bointer's company. Jaded Cockney Connie, wide-boy Chris and double-entendre Dave are fellow guides. Alan-Partridge-like Phil letches for Sarah, who pines for Chris.

Troubleshooters by John Hill features actors Isabelle Defaut (Rebecca), Staten Eliot (Alex), Chris Gilling (Geoff), Robert Irons (Trevor), Rebecca Peyton (Sarah); director is Alexander Summers. Alex joins Trevor's conflict-resolution firm whose partners include Geoff, Sarah, Rebecca. Angry Sarah and alcoholic Geoff divorced but carried on in the company; Rebecca's constantly on the edge of tears. Alex is given the task of resolving a conflict over a church roof with disastrous consequences.

Monster Biscuits by Kevin Borrass & John Hill features actors Steve Mould (Paul), Stuart Packer (DC Taylor), Victoria Temple-Morris (Ursula), Matthew Thorneton-Field (Chad), Jennifer Tollady (Jayne); director is Nick Ewans. Shy martial-arts enthusiast Paul, randy resourceful Ursula and bored Jayne staff The Perfect Partners Dating Agency whose website was hacked overnight and filled with pornography. DC Taylor calls on Ursula in connection with his work on the terrorist squad. Meat-packer Chad enrols expecting filthy delight.

Sweet As by Caro Sharman & Symon Parsons features actors Nick Bacash (Tyler), Abigail Boyd (Brownie), Graham Elwell (The Husband), Rebecca Jo Hanbury (quiet woman), Hannah Harvey (Blanca), Michael Magnet (Mike), Katrina Thompson (Caro), Greg Wohead (Keith); director Maggie Inchley; stage manager Jules Richardson. It features the gross lives of 8 characters from California, Polynesia, Wales, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia. Lonely Keith is taunted by cock-masters porn-drooling Tyler and cunning Michael who try and train him to pull. A quiet (ish) woman who keeps a journal of her faecial output is taken out on the lash by lushes Brownie and farting/vomiting Caro. Tyler and Brazilian Blanca's move towards a shag climaxes with photography by Blanca's enthusiastic naked-except-tiny-briefs husband - and Tyler's humiliated retreat. The quiet woman and Keith are drawn together - could it be love?

COMMENT

It's fair to point out a couple of points before commenting - hopefully impartially and even-handedly - on the show. The first is that Fringe Report readers will know (The Good Guide writer) Sara Pascoe as a long-standing and very popular Fringe Report writer. The second is that today's judges Jamie Glazebrook and Geoff Posner are outstandingly qualified to judge what makes good TV. In selecting Sweet As as winner, Geoff Posner explains with grace, logic and wit exactly why the judges made their decision.

The omments following are no reflection at all on the excellence and fairness of the judging process. However, in a capacity audience (the audience don't vote or give opinions today), there may be many different views on the ranking of four high-quality productions. Here's ours.

Best Script. All four productions are polished and entertaining. We'd rank them: In joint first place - Troubleshooters and The Good Guide. Both productions feature strong, interesting writing with intellectual muscle. Troubleshooters has the funniest joke in today's finals, extremely tight writing and very strong acting. The Good Guide brims with insight and sensitivity about human relationships, has some very funny lines, particularly for ingenue tour guide Sarah, and a warm, ensemble-like feel to the acting. In joint second place - Sweet As and Monster Biscuits. The characters and situations in Sweet As feel very stereotypical - The Vegemite Tales crossed with The Young Ones and Dame Edna Everage. Nothing unpredictable happens, with the gorgeous exception of the naughty Brazilians - if only the whole production was as exciting. It's fair to point out that (for example) The Vegemite Tales is very popular, and there's clearly a market for this type of show. Monster Biscuits has some funny segments and possibilities for evolution - it would be easier to get a feel for it from a longer version seeing how some of its many plot strands work as stories. Both productions have fine acting. This is the Sitcom Trials, and the official judging values must relate to what will make popular TV. But all four finalists would make fine, lively stage productions. Hopefully their writers, directors and casts will power on to develop the four shows to (eg) 60 minutes and put them into live theatre.

Best Actors. It is certainly difficult to pick out 'best actors' from 23 very fine performances, let alone divide them into men and women (Best Actor, Best Actress). We'd skip the female/male differentiation and pick out a top third (8 actors) as particularly outstanding today. Coincidentally - and it is a coincidence - there are 2 from each production. (in alpha order): Jessica Fostekew - a powerful and oddly emotionally-moving performance as monotoned bitter Cockney Connie (The Good Guide). Chris Gilling - a sexy charisma, real emotional depth, and almost-touchable authority as scheming Geoff (Troubleshooters). Rebecca Jo Hanbury - a touching and endearing performance as the turd-analysing quiet one, with an unexpected sweetness in her portrayal (Sweet As). Robert Irons - powerful interpretation and delivery, authority, very fine comic timing, great presence (Trevor in Troubleshooters). Cariad Lloyd - tenderness and the articulation of shyness, superb comic delivery and touching vulnerability (Sarah in The Good Guide). Steve Mould - a sensitive and subtle delivery of Paul contrasting skilfully with the other characters (Monster Biscuits) (also Chris in The Good Guide). Katrina Thompson - stereotype character (Caro in Sweet As) maybe, but Katrina Thompson delivers her wonderfully, with blissful comedy and a powerful acting talent to give Caro a rounded human quality. Matthew Thorneton-Field - a supporting role (Chad in Troubleshooters) exquisitely played - gentle comedy, and a strong evocation of a character.

The Sitcom Trials were created by Kev F Sutherland, a modest chap always ready to give credit to other people - particularly the producers of this season of Sitcom Trials, Declan Hill and Simon Wright - rather than claiming it himself. He adds brightly to the success of today's event - with a capacity audience including lots of agents and producers - by his gently-funny and engagingly self-disparaging commentary and polite, enthusiastic introduction of performances. There are lags of time of unpredicable length between the segments as sets are changed and actors assembled - unknown numbers of minutes being pure hell for a compere - and a long, equally-unknown chunk after the end as the judges leave the room to decide the results. These are all covered with Kev F Sutherland's easy grace. Soho Theatre's 3rd Floor Studio is very hot from lamps and stuffy today, and keeping a restless sticky crowd happy while covering time is a task for an expert. He has a seemingly limitless repertoire of off-the-cuff, enjoyable, stories about the Sitcom Trials and an astonishing ability to draw cartoons - an Exeter College of Art fine-arts graduate, one of his many other jobs is to draw The Beano comic - which he does in a tour-de-force of audience engagement during the blank space while the judges are absent. He asks the audience to call out their favourite 9 means of sitcom transport (the 3-wheeler from Only Fools And Horses, the car from Flintstones), draws them, and gets vocal votes to find the top favourite. As the judging period extends, he repeats this for 9 favourite stupid persons in a sitcom (Manuel in Fawlty Towers, Baldrick in BlackAdder), and keeps the audience in a good mood. Today's show is an enjoyable and very entertaining event from the quality of the productions, and Kev F Sutherland makes a major contribution to its success by the quality of his compering. He deserves a very special round of applause.

END

John Park

Thursday 13 December 07 / 13:30 / Soho Theatre, London

Note - There is an evening performance on the same day at The Hob, Forest Hill, London

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