Review: BRAINS, Theatre N16

In the near future, a mystery disease has turned half the population into zombies, with the other half desperate for a cure. But Big Pharma company Medibite's big bastard boss, Harry, is more interested in driving up profits to satisfy his even bigger bastard of a CEO, Katie Hopkins lookalike Ursula. But when science geek Stuart reveals that he might just have a cure (subject to a lot more testing), teen intern, Tina, tweets the potential breakthrough to the press. And things take a turn for the worse.

Thick and Thin Theatre's debut show is firmly located within the low budget comedy-horror genre, with over-the-top acting (and swearing), ridiculous unabashed stereotypes and plenty of cliches. But it's comedy, and that's what one can expect - moreover it does get plenty of laughs even if the jokes are sometimes lost in delivery, perhaps a shortage of rehearsal time showing through. At well under an hour, it doesn't outstay its welcome, the pace and punch admirably maintained throughout.

Aidan Parsons (though inevitably a bit too young for the role) has a touch of Gordon Gekko about his boss man Harry and Stephanie Overington, power-dressed in red and black is a convincing superbitch CEO, but, as one might expect in so short a runtime, nobody is given quite enough to do and the plot rather fizzles out.

I've often claimed here that comedy is the hardest genre to pull off and I can only applaud a young company with the balls to give it a go, but this is a play that needs more work on rounding out each character and their specific motivations and interactions before one can say that its full potential has been reached.

Brains continues at Theatre N16 until 14 January.

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