July in Manchester means the return of the Greater Manchester Fringe – an opportunity for a variety of comedic performances to grace the many stages within the area. As part of the festival, Chip Slap Comedy brings this production Patience to the quirky venue of Social Refuge.
This two-person comedy piece stars Rachael Dennis as a doting Mum trying to secure a spot at the local state school for her son. Her co-star is Marianne Walsh, takes on the increasingly difficult and unhelpful assistant to the headteacher, and is also the writer of the play. Both show impressive character work as they quickly bring reality and authenticity to their characters – for better or for worse, these are both characters you can picture in real life. The duo has great comedic chemistry, and it is clear the pair have a great working partnership.
The structure of the play sees the two characters conversing over many meetings as our protagonist Mum struggles to make any progression in getting her son a place at the school. Despite using a comedic time stamp Rolodex on the office desk, the format quickly becomes repetitive and loses effectiveness as the show progresses – it is limited in the number of scenarios it can create to add to the frustrating emotion it is trying to portray to the audience.
Listed as being an analogy for budget cuts made to the NHS and limitations on staff, this messaging was not made explicit enough within the story. The intended messaging becomes convoluted when using a different failing system, underfunding in UK state schools, to tell a similar message. This feels like a missed opportunity of using a medical setting with transferable and recognisable characters to get across the intended messaging. Despite budget restrictions coming from Government influence, the decision to make the antagonist a member of school staff also feels misplaced for the commentary of cuts.
From lived experience, we can all laugh along with the frustrating but recognisable situations presented in Patience. But a repetitive situation comedy can struggle to stretch beyond a short skit concept and into a developed one act play. Despite promising comedic performances, Patience often feels a little one-note, unable to effectively convey the message it set out to achieve.
Patience has an additional performance as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe on 18th July 2025 at Social Refuge with tickets available at https://greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk/events/patience/
Reviewer: Harry Alty
Reviewed: 14th July 2025
North West End UK Rating: