Review: TELETHON, Shoreditch Town Hall

On reading a list of credits as long as many in the West End, you enter the hall space thinking "This is going to be ambitious" - you're not wrong. And, commendable though Talkshow Theatre's confidence may be in mounting such a show, that ambition skewers the satire too often, jokes, character development and narrative smothered by multimedia whizzes and bangs.

The set up is a good one. A children's TV personality, a YouTube influencer and a much-loved, but recently disgraced, presenter on her way back to the public's hearts, front a telethon raising money to plant trees and alleviate climate change. That's a whole herd of sacred cows right there for the satirist's arrows.

Erin Hutching (Erica) in her Anneka Rice jumpsuit is all smiley warmth in the Blue Peterish role; Archie Backhouse (Kris) has a bit of street but not much knowledge as the YouTuber who has a keen eye for monetising content; and Katie Lovell (Jennifer) captures the woman with a relationship history that has proved tabloid catnip. Soon, the telethon production team's bad decisions start to unravel.

Having Sophie Gunn (excellent) sing out the social media posts in real time descends into a troll-fest at Jennifer's expense; a Macarenaing brother and sister soon attract salacious rumours and the cuts to a reading of Oedipus are about as well-judged as you might expect. It's a the Telethon from Hell.

The play's individual components mine good comic material (even if the brother-sister thing is pushed too hard) but the sheer technical challenge of maintaining the pace comedy requires, proves too much for this young company. There's the presenters in the room with their onstage and offstage personalities, the drop-in videos, voiceovers from the gallery, subtitles and sign language, time stamps, a phone call that doesn't quite happen, audience interaction, music, an inexplicably lengthy dance routine and maybe even more stuff I can't recall. The net effect of that sensory overload is to sap the humour from the show, particularly as transitions often take just a beat too long and the actors then have to catch up with the subtitles. Comedy is such a hard thing to get right because it's so fragile - it wilts under this kind of pressure.

Talkshow Theatre pack a 24 hour telethon into a 90 minutes show that, like many a musical in development, needs re-thinking in order to focus on the genuinely funny satire it generates, settle on a consistent tone and maximise the pace of its narrative. The considerable potential of the story and its performers may then emerge from the enthusiastic, but confused, show we see now.

Telethon is at Shoreditch Town Hall until 14 April

Photo Justin Jones

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