REVIEW: THE MIDNIGHT SNACK by Other Mysteries at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 11 – 13 August /Camden Fringe

‘… performed in an ingenious way’ ★★★★

The Midnight Snack is a parodied whodunnit in which we don’t really care who did it. That doesn’t matter at all. This slap-tick filled comedy is all about the hilariously sketched characters.

Harry (Jonah Walsh) is a wannabe true crime podcaster trying to realise his dreams in his overbearing mum’s basement. The trouble is, she keeps barging in with her inane gossip.

The great delight of this production is the visual realisation and comedic distortion of the true crime podcast form. Speaking into his Dictaphone, Harry narrates the story, parodying the dramatic phrases and inflections we’d expect to hear in an actual podcast. Over the course of the play, he interrogates several suspects ranging from a cooking show host to a chicken shop owner. All the characters are funny in their own right and all are performed in an ingenious way.

Between them, actor Carloyn Hartvigsen and Mackenzie Larson portray the entire supporting cast of eleven characters. The actors are constantly switching between roles, assisted by a veritable mountain of props that festoon the stage. At one point, Larson slides between mother and love interest repeatedly, a move pointed to by Harry as distinctly Freudian. The transitions between character are clumsy but deliberately so. They are essential part of this play’s unique charm.

A mild criticism is that the comedy didn't really build. The audience was introduced to these funny people but it kind of remained on one level and could have been pushed further towards its limits.

That being said this was a delightfully frivolous play and well worth a watch.

The Midnight Snack

By Other Mysteries

Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town

August 11th-13th at 8.30pm

https://camden.ssboxoffice.com/events/the-midnight-snack/

Reviewed by Danny Shaw