NewsRevue

The NewsRevue team have taken their annual summer holiday in
Edinburgh for over 30 years now. It comes as no surprise that they enjoy
sell-out runs every year – their winning brand of risque humour, acerbic wit,
crude impersonations, and cruelly barbed social commentary makes for an ideal
hour’s entertainment at the Fringe.

Direct from the Canal Cafe
in London, where they present a new show every week, satire has rarely provided
more hilarity than this, as sharp and heavily ironic sketches, songs, and
soundbites mocking the year’s news events hit the audience at lightning speed.

The four performers deliver tight and topical scripts
flawlessly, swapping accents, physicality and costume in seconds so the action
remains effortlessly fluid. Their range is extremely broad and varied, calling
on a multitude of skills and techniques, and above all, they never once lag in
energy or confidence. On-stage music helps to comfortably link sketches together
and even suggests a setting before the lights have even snapped back on.  These
are all old hands, and it shows.

         
No-one escapes the
satirical sword. The stars of Harry Potter set to ABBA, rapping Miliband
brothers, Cameron and Clegg at dinner, Ryan Giggs’ infidelity, Berlusconi’s
dating video, and Bin Laden’s final resting place all feature, not forgetting a
scathing review of News International and a magnificent sketch with a demonic
Queen terrifying Kate Middleton into submission which had me in absolute
hysterics. However, be warned – certain moments may come dangerously close to
offending, although that very much depends on your sense of humour.

Miss this show at your peril. In this dark and often strange
world in which we live, it feels extremely liberating to be able to laugh at it
– because, sometimes, that’s all you can do.