Casual Violence: A Kick in the Teeth

Having chosen death as their denouement last year, the Casual Violence boys keep it ‘light’ this time. Just a kick in the teeth. Tossed together with some death and maiming and general decline into suicidal despair. Standard.

The Caves is the perfect venue for their warped tales of weird and terrible characters picking out their sorry paths from worse to horrible. You will squirm and howl and mewl. I didn’t even know what a mewl was till I went, but mewl I did. And how.

You’ll laugh too, but it hurts. They conjure up their characters so painfully well that it will drag out a bit of your heart and half choke you with laughter. The one problem with this wonderfully crafted concatenation of worlds is that it never quite comes together as a complete whole. They spin a cracking yarn, but it seems they don’t quite finish it – for the time being at least, the sense of an ending (happy or otherwise) has eluded them.

Nevertheless, this is an unmissable show. Set to the marvellous musical stylings of that one guy who didn’t get a character (almost, but not quite), A Kick In The Teeth is an utterly vile delight. You are a dreadful person for enjoying it.