What can be better than free theatre in an intimate venue? For the next three Tuesday evenings get yourself down to the Top Secret Comedy Club in Covent Garden and you can experience a delightful little series of tales by Encompass and Pen & Rose, Life In A Sketchbook.
I’m familiar with Encompass Productions, having seen their disturbing future tale Who Is Moloch earlier this year, but this is their first collaboration with Pen & Rose, a newly-formed theatre company which is the brainchild of Emma Minihan and Charlie Limm – in fact Life In A Sketchbook is their first piece of theatre.
Directed by Jonathan Woodhouse and Rachel Owens and written by Emma Minihan, the play features six discreet ten-minute sketches starting with The Interview, where the tables are literally turned on the candidates. We then get to witness The Dreamer, The Lunch Break (where a group of people literally fight over the last empty spot in the canteen), The Last Table, The House Hunt (which represents definitive proof that the price of renting a space in London is really getting out of hand) and finishing on the delightful The Sofa. In this final story a talented duo (Owen Collins and Freya Parsons) discover that limiting their life experiences to the safe environs of their sofa is probably the wisest move…
I rather enjoyed the sketches that make up Life In A Sketchbook, although I did feel that it took a little while to get going. Lets put that down to first night nerves – I’m sure the actors’ confidence will have grown by their second performance tomorrow night. The Sofa in particular is a beautifully rounded little fragment of theatre – I would recommend Life In A Sketchbook on the basis of the last ten minutes alone.
You’ll find the Top Secret Comedy Club in the basement of 38 King St and Life In A Sketchbook kicks off at 6pm, with performances on Tuesday 16, 23 and 30 July coming up.
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