Mugging Chickens kicks off - after some initial uncertain faffing-about with chairs and ducking in and out of curtains - with a musical number. It's a duet between Theo Weedon and Robin Hill about the manly joys of having a best friend - which quickly switches into an unrequited gay love song. It's funny and well-delivered, with some nice comedy timing – although they might need to consider slapping a parental-advisory sticker over some of the content of this and quite a few of the other sketches.

It's a good start, and over the next hour the troupe of seven perform some 23 sketches. There are some good ideas, and where they manage to develop the ideas through to the end they work well. A sketch about a master's unrequited love for his butler is well-performed, particularly at the last, poignant 'I love you'. One about a pitch for a new energy drink called Pussy has energy and pace and self-consciously naughty humour. A reverse strip-tease to Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On is genuinely funny, and a couple of running gags - a surreal screaming pie-flinger and a tag-team - have definite potential. The choice of music, either as an ironic counterpoint or to underscore a joke, is often spot-on, and there are some strong performances.

But the quality is very uneven. For every good idea there are two that miss the mark. A lot of sketches either go on far too long or simply run out of steam, and the performers scrabble off stage as if desperate to get away from them. Some performances are distinctly under-confident, making sketches feel stilted and under-rehearsed, or fizzle out dishearteningly. Too often the anarchic edge is sacrificed in the temptation to ham it up, and though the mugging chickens probably seemed an immensely funny idea on paper, it loses in performance.

Attempts to stretch the material into darker areas are generally effective, but there are times when the ribald humour walks a perilous line between funny and offensive. There are also some tired re-treads of old ideas - for example the professional dickhead who has come to the wrong address has been a sketch-show staple for what feels like centuries, and influences occasionally show too clearly. The company's best sketches are those with an anarchic, risk-taking edge and the writing in these is often effective. If they can sharpen up the rest of the writing and performances, and have the courage to push their ideas further, these chicks could really fly.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Ed Cumberlege. Rob Clarke. Robin Hill. Dylan Mitchell-Funk. Bill Osborne. Oscar Weedon. Theo Weedon.

Company Credits: Writer - the company. Director - the company. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - Mugging Chickens. Website - www.myspace.com/muggingchickens.

END

(c) Linda Duncan McLaughlin 2009

reviewed Monday 10 August 09 / Laughing Horse @ Edinburgh City Football Club, Edinburgh UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com