Lazy Susan: Extreme Humans @ Pleasance THAT

Sketch shows at the Fringe can be a bit like Scottish football supporters’ adaptations of 80s synth pop songs; they’re enjoyable enough but not usually all that original. Lazy Susan duo Celeste Dring and Freya Parker may demonstrate a knack for storytelling with some laudable acting ability, but their show is ultimately hindered by many of the sketches’ inspiration being too readily apparent.

From the offset, Lazy Susan’s characters appear familiar. A ‘will they, won’t they’ Geordie couple made up of the introverted Viv and troubled, hopeless romantic Steve, share undoubted similarities with many of the countless portrayals of Geordies seen in British comedy in the past 20 years, particularly Vic and Bob. Here though, in the small confines of Pleasance THAT, Lazy Susan at least execute the performances well, with a tight script that pays off by the end with several of the disparate characters’ lives intertwining. Some of the characters thrown into the mix, however, are neither novel nor all that amusing. A generic US talk-show host, white van men, and Home Counties sisters with speech impediments, are just too hackneyed to prove humorous. The cooking aid-named duo’s acerbic deconstruction of social media behaviour around tragedy illustrates that they should be above such clichés.

Dring’s exuberant but hapless US kid Todd, is perfectly balanced by Parker’s insouciant Jennifer Priestley, the love of his life, in what are, consistently, the best sketches of the show, providing all manner of twee-infused macabre that calls to mind Ghost World and South Park. A well-chosen soundtrack immerses the audience, while at the same time gives the sketches a polished finish. This being said, the show lacks that bit of freshness in its ideas that would place it above the rank and file sketch shows. [Chris Rumbles]