Obviously, Mary Tynan, writer, director, producer and performer of Your Viewing Pleasure had a great time putting it together. Parodying reality TV and gameshows, this sketch show seemed bent on getting in as much tits 'n teeth as possible, and had performers appearing in bikinis, snorting invisible cocaine substitutes and spelling out words like cunnilingus.

Unfortunately, it was not as much fun to watch as it may have been to invent. From the moment of welcome to Channel 69, jokes were stretched to their furthest possible limit, including spoof quiz Call My Bollocks, which carried on long after the point had been made, and The South Wank Show. While there was nothing wrong with its unsubtle humour, there was nothing witty or particularly new, as it failed even to become offensive. Your Viewing Pleasure felt more like an end-of-term revue, with onlookers cheering whenever their friends came on stage.

A few performances sparked it up. Stasia Buckle threw herself wholeheartedly into personas such as last year's winner of Miss North London, and simpering, giggling Kylie, up for new reality show Britain's Next Traffic Warden. Rebecca Talbot delivered a convincing Davina McCall-type presenter, as well as a drugged-up tabloid journalist, Miss Haringey. Antonia Reid as the bored and pleasantly vacant announcer also worked as an icy foil to the lechery happening elsewhere, but had a habit of wandering across stage mid-scene and out of character.

Many of the sketches lacked pace or drive, and came across as under-rehearsed. Uncertain and unnecessary blackouts came from nowhere, dipping and fading in the middle of the action. New lighting states took longer to settle in than the one-line gags which they were meant to frame. There seemed little sense of stage or TV craft, as actors talked almost exclusively to themselves, apparently forgetting that they were meant to be presenting to a TV camera. Your Viewing Pleasure was clearly supposed to satirise society as society laughed along. Unfortunately it became too caught up in its own expletives, and felt instead like a bit of fun for friends to chuckle over knowingly.

Cast Credits: (The cast play various roles): (alpha order): Stasia Buckle. Greg Hull. Aimi Percival. Antonia Reid. Rebecca Talbot. Graham Townsend. Mary Tynan.

Company Credits: Writer / Director - Mary Tynan. Sound and Lighting - Sean Madden. Producer - Mary Tynan. Company - Cool Running Productions. Festival - Camden Fringe

END

(c) Philippa Tatham 2008

reviewed Saturday 16 August 08 / Etcetera Theatre, London

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008

www.fringereport.com