Ben Welch, Zara White, Trev Cole
The creators of Mrs Green: The Musical, they’ve left the brownie-lovin’, marijuana growin’ granny in Basford for now, and taken on the challenge of making an audience laugh for an hour straight with their new comedy sketch show.
The tag line for the show is “Three humans discover the art of pretending”, and it’s the human element of the production that gives it heart. We warm to the performers on a whole new level as they let us in on their jokes. Where other comedy shows can often feel aloof and smarmy with a “Here’s our joke, now laugh” element, Sheep Soup – namely Ben Welch, Trev Cole and Zara White – are laughing along with us.
The trio are charming as hell; each with a different flavour to add to the melting pot. Trev – of D.I.D fame – has an army of facial expressions up his sleeve, thrown at the audience often in dismay at the actions of his stage fellows. Zara is a thunder storm of a woman who makes for an extraordinary cow (watch the show) and has musical prowess beyond many of our wildest dreams. Ben wraps the show in a bear hug of personality, treating the audience like one of his mates from the off – a truly warm, and downright hilarious stage presence.
Together, they invite the audience in with cheeky “aren’t we being funny” smiles, and race about the stage in between sketches constantly reminding us “this isn’t it”. There’s a method to their madness, as organised chaos envelopes the stage with props and party poppers flying all over the shop. Characters are clear and well defined while bordering on the ridiculous; dithering grandmas are nestled in between operatic monkeys and pushy parents.
The musical aspect of the production is what truly sets The Invention of Acting aside from other sketch comedy performances. Each of the actors are exceptionally talented musicians, and their three part harmonies are to die for. What’s nice to see is that the three don’t shy away from allowing the audience to enjoy their music for the sake of another joke. In particular, the operatic monkeys embark on a hilarious journey through some of the world’s most famous opera arias, finishing with a climactic three-part harmony to Francesco Sartori and Lucio Quarantotto’s Con te Partiro which is nothing short of incredible.
We don’t give stars, but if we did, there’d be five shiny ones smacked all over it.
Sheep Soup are taking The Invention of Acting to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, performing at The Caves with Just The Tonic from Tuesday 16 – Friday 28 August.
The Invention of Acting at Edinburgh Fringe
Sheep Soup website
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