Theatre review: Who Invited You Lot? Cafe Camino (Venue 65), Edinburgh

By SUE WILSON
Published on 11/08/2012 18:41

STYLISTIC traces of Peep Show, Joe Orton and Dario Fo periodically pervade this farce/melodrama/thriller confection, which pits best mates Stanley and Ben in competition for the affections of their mutual married love-object, Judith.

Who Invited You Lot?

Café Camino (Venue 65)

Star rating: * * *

As Stanley prepares to declare himself with dinner for two at his place, having invited her over anonymously, Ben arrives to enlist his help in murdering her husband, Arthur, whom he’s lured to the same address.

A reasonably lively and inventive succession of mishaps, cross-purposes, and reversals ensues, carried by energetic if often broad-brush, scattershot performances, and weaving in an enjoyable sub-plot concerning a local serial killer with a weakness for alliteration.

The cast need to modulate their projection (ie, stop shouting) and an under-edited script left too much room for sprawl and sag, but some sequences built a nicely manic head of steam. This definitely has potential, and as gratis entertainment goes – the show being part of PBH’s Free Fringe – it’s worth an afternoon hour.