Review: MISCHIEF MOVIE NIGHT, The Other Palace

“Tonight, we’re going to watch one film from my infinite collection of movies”

After a run at the Vaudeville Theatre and on livestream during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Mischief Movie Night returns to London with a run at The Other Palace. The show, which started as Lights! Camera! Improvise! at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, brings the original Mischief Theatre troupe members back to their roots of improvisational comedy.

In terms of concepts, Mischief Movie Night is simple - Oscar, a man who has every film imaginable in his collection, is inviting the audience to choose one to watch. Audience members suggest a genre, a location and a title and Oscar presses “Play!”

At this particular performance, the actors appearing were Jonathan Sayer as Oscar, Ellie Morris, Nancy Zamit, Susan Harrison, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell and Matt Cavendish. There is also a musician who sits to the side of the stage, surrounded by instruments and props. The audience chose both “Sci-Fi” and “Road Trip” as genres, with Oscar being unable to choose which one received more applause and simply going with both - though there was an interesting suggestion of “Lindsey Lohan” - and the title was To the Moon and Staying There. 

Oscar has the ability to control the movie with commands including “Pause,” which causes the performers to freeze, “Fast Forward,” where cast members speed up their performance, “Director’s Cut,” which allows the audience to see cut scenes and even “DVD Extras,” where we get bonus content from the movie. For example, we are told that Eileen’s parents both love to dance the jig and have tried to teach their daughter “jigging,” but, as we are shown in a cut scene, Eileen cannot jig, instead throwing it back on top of the coffin at a funeral service. In the DVD Extras for To the Moon and Staying There, we also get to see the orientation video for Moon College, where Suzie plans on going. 

Russell and Morris take on the leading roles of Eileen Schmileen and Suzie, two friends - with American accents, for some reason - whose lives are changed when they go on a road trip in space. Zamit and Lewis are Eileen’s parents, passionate dancers struggling to stay together. As Oscar puts it, “No amount of jigging can help them.” Harrison takes on the role of Suzie’s mum, a robot, doing a brilliant impression of a robot with mechanical movements and voice. She also plays the important role of trying to keep things on track, a difficult task when it comes to the show! At some points Harrison simply starts telling the entire story to keep moving, much to the amusement of the cast and audience members (a highlight quote being “Just leaving you with that cool info, bye”).

There were several highlights of the show including Cavendish’s portrayal of Suzie’s brother, Eric, who has been turned into a lava lamp by his sister and is desparate for his mother to acknowledge and love him. Another included Zamit as the titular Momma of Momma’s Motel, belting out an incredible song with an ensemble of bizarre characters explaining how they ended up at the mote. But the absolute highlight of the night was Lewis taking on the role of a sentient wall for Suzie to draw upon who was desparate to have some art pinned on him, screaming “Use me!” This led to several minutes of laughter from cast and audience members alikes, and I found myself struggling to breathe from how hard I was laughing. 

The greatest part of Mischief Movie Night is being able to see how the actors perform with one another, especially for those who have been a fan of Mischief for many years. The original cast have been doing this show for over a decade and it is lovely to see how they interact with one another. It’s a delight to see them corpse, something that is almost encouraged by the silliness and casualness of the atmosphere.

Some of my favourite moments were those in which there was an instant “head shake of regret” after a particular action, knowing it would come back to haunt them later. Oscar’s commentary gives audience members time to laugh in between moments of chaos and gives the performers a moment to breathe and collect their thoughts as well! But, even with all of this, there are some surprisingly heartfelt moments, including one reveal that actually had audience members gasping in shock. 

Ultimately, Mischief Movie Night is one of the best nights of improv comedy one can find in London. It’s incredible to see how much Mischief has grown over the past ten years in the show that started it all. If you’re not up at the Edinburgh Fringe and able to snag one of the remaining tickets, be sure to check it out!

Mischief Movie Night runs until 1 September at The Other Palace.

Read our interview with actor Jonathan Sayer on Mischief Movie Night here.

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