Comedy review: The Return of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

Published on Friday 22 August 2008 21:11

THE RETURN OF THE SCOTTISH FALSETTO SOCK PUPPET THEATRE **** GILDED BALLOON TEVIOT (VENUE 14)

A POPULAR Shakespeare play in five minutes. A battle between mods and rockers. A Christmas song for our times … is there no end to the ambition of the doughty duo who make up the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre?

Mind, when you have one sock with aspirations to dramatic greatness and another happy just to give us his "comic shit" there's plenty room to manoeuvre. And manoeuvre they do, around a cute wee tartan Punch and Judy booth – well, so far as grey socks from TK Maxx can wander without actual legs. One can play guitar and keyboards – with the help of pipe cleaner arms and said instruments (both nicknamed Vicky the Technician, oddly).

The high-voiced Socks really are a charming pair, quickly striking up a rapport with the audience – hopefully they weren't all foot fetishists – and occasionally letting us join in the fun even more directly by inviting suggestions for bits of business.

With this show they've been hoping to catch the eye of TV commissioning folk, hence the homage to the Bard. Well, so they say … I suspect the Socks have simply been stocking up on Shakespeare gags and just couldn't hold them back anymore.

Whatever the reason, the climactic battle of said play (I won't give away which one, as punters have to guess – my lot proved rather pathetic in this area) is sheer spectacle, what with the cast of, oh, several (including a rather tarty doll and a couple of Snow White's dwarfs) and special effects that have to be seen to be believed.

The only bit of the show that didn't work for me were the twisted recreations of an Abbot and Costello routine that even the Socks admit were pretty crap in the first place. Never mind, for sheer energy and laughs per hour, these comic stockings are the biz – denier miss it.

Until tomorrow. Today 8:45pm