Mischief return to the Edinburgh Fringe with Mischief Movie Night, an improvised film night, complete with lively discussion of the genre and title to be chosen. Thankfully your host (Jonathan Sayer) has every film ever made, as well as tenuously related documentaries, bonus features, and over a half-dozen actors Rhyanna Alexander-Davis, Josh Elliott, Sue Harrion, Harry Kershaw, Henry Lewis, Dave Hearn, Charlie Russell and Henry Shields) and musicians (Ed Zanders, Oliver Izod, Christopher Ash, and Dylan Towney) to star in it.
Improvisation is tricky genre, and in many cases one wonders if the audience would react half as well to the jokes if they didn’t think they were entirely spontaneous and unpredictable and that they had played an important role in them. But this was not the case here.
The expert team worked uniformly very well together, whether in lead or supporting roles (or even inanimate ones) and the film viewer / compeer’s role helped to keep the story moving (a medical drama when I saw it, apparently the first of the run), give a backbone of sanity to weirder plot off-shoots and also introduce the occasional curve-ball himself.
Mischief Movie Night was a perfect execution of its concept, though admittedly I’m not sure a medical drama should have quite so many songs and subplots involving sentient, moving taps. But it was all very funny: when it comes to improv comedy, it just doesn’t get better than this.
Mischief Movie Night plays until August 28th (not Mondays) at Pleasance at the EICC, and tickets can be found at https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mischief-movie-night
Reviewer: Oliver Giggins
Reviewed: 12th August 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★★