Cambridge Footlights : Canada

By Ron Bingham

This year’s Cambridge Footlights team is a quartet of fresh faced youngsters (well, except for the one with a beard). The quartet – Matty, Matilda, Rosa and Emma – are all energetic and confident as they jump into an hour of fast paced and inventive sketches that are often as witty as they are original.

One sketch, the machine that shows how you are going to die, was returned to a number of times with some unusual ways to go. The sequence with the piece of string showed some excellent solo acting skills and the dance number had a hilariously childish payoff (I assume they were doing the sexy dancing from the actual video clip from the song that was playing, but I’m too old to know what the song actually was). I also enjoyed the sketches where they included an audience member as a passive cast prop, although the one where an audience member can win cash was fraught with danger. The reason the show is called Canada is due to two sketches in which Canada features in a roundabout way, and I suppose it was as good a choice of name as anything. Unless they just really like Canada.

I went into this show with few expectations, and was impressed with the teams energy and originality. They are all disgracefully young and attractive (well, alright, except for Matty, unless you like someone that looks like a young Rory McGrath) and way too talented to end up doing proper jobs after university. I was surprised that there was no singing in the show, as I thought that was a hallmark of uni reviews. There was enough entertainment in the hour for everyone. There is no swearing or anything that will offend anyone too much, and the sold out audience of the show I saw ranged in age from eight to eighty (who I was sitting next to, the disgraceful old ladies!).

Cambridge Footlights : Canada is on at Pleasance Dome at 5.20pm

For Bookings https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/cambridge-footlights-canada