This is a clever and funny improv show from ‘ShakeItUp’, and the cast work incredibly hard throughout to create and perform a play, in the style of Shakespeare, using audience suggestions.

I imagine the most successful of these shows is where the audience provide suitably interesting ideas. The show we saw focused on a Shakespearean tragedy (‘everyone dies’), and the inspiration was drawn from the real-life story shared by an audience member about two rival bars (whose names will remain redacted here, but are located in Glasgow), set in Barbados. When asked ‘what’s in Barbados?’, one audience member mentioned singer Rihanna. Prior to the show, audience members also contributed a line of their own which, when pulled from the waistbands of the players’ pantaloons, provided dialogue and diversion for the plot. This was enough for the cast, and the players did magnificently with it, weaving an intricate plot peppered with well-timed Rihanna references. Just like in Shakespeare there was a song, just like in Shakespearean tragedies there were deaths and feuds and, most impressively, just like in Shakespeare there was plenty of iambic pentameter.

The one hour time frame is perhaps slightly long for the format but this is really a small gripe in what is fundamentally a really very funny show, deftly performed by this troupe of comedy bards.

The cast were fantastic, creating characters and scenes from scratch, following the story together but without prior discussion. It was hilarious; a production Shakespeare himself would have been proud of.

⭐⭐⭐⭐