Dreadfully good

The Penny Dreadfuls began life in Bedlam Theatre in 2005 and so, after two sell-out Fringe shows and a BBC7 radio show that has recently been commissioned for a second series, it seems a fitting location for them to debut their new show Aeneas Faversham Forever. 

Gone are the rapid sequences of sketches which made up their previous shows. In their place is an hour-long comedy play set in Victorian London which tells the story of nefarious villain Lucius Frost as he tries to resurrect the Dark Lord Oysters McGee from beneath Tower Bridge, and the efforts of disgraced Scotland Yard officer McAllister and children’s author Rufus Hambleden as they try to confound him.

The protean ability of performers Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck lead the audience through their warped version of Victorian London as they effortlessly adopt a wide range of distinct accents and physicality for each of the many characters. The Victorian setting also provides rich pickings for jokes involving the likes of horse and cart bombs and supernatural crystals that ingeniously play with modern concepts and our views of the era.

But while the show undoubtedly has a strong sense of direction, the group’s sketch comedy roots are still clearly visible. The structure of the majority of scenes is very much in the setup and punchline style of sketch comedy and this, for the first twenty minutes, jars slightly with their attempts to get the audience absorbed into the story.

However, once the characters and direction of the plot have been firmly established these barriers fade away and the real strengths of the show become clear. The strongest parts—and the reason why this new style works so well for the Dreadfuls—appear when the main characters interact and let the narrative and references from previous scenes create the jokes. It shows a growing level of maturity in the writing and provides a more satisfying comical payoff.

With five months left to perfect the material, this promises to be one of the more popular shows at the Fringe.

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