Police Cops - Badass
First of all, let’s give a brief nod to the Interlude venue itself, a pop-up tent nestled behind the Cathedral. The organisers have done a grand job of setting out things out, with outdoor eating and drinking and seating, nice loos, and all enclosed by lovely surroundings, given the place a pleasing festival feel, rather than simply making do in the circumstances. It was the perfect setting for the knockabout humour of Police Cops’ latest outing.
Tom Roe, Nathan Parkinson and Zachary Hunt have been mining the comedy of police procedures for a while now – hence the misleading name – but in the play formally known as Badass Be Thy Name they have gone for the jugular with avampire slaying spoof. Done on a purposefully tiny budget and with a surprisingly coherent narrative, knockabout nonsense it may have been, but it was also a surprisingly well developed story.
The central conceit of the show involved the Devil visiting “Madchester” during the nighties, in order to try out “sweets” while enlisting the assistance of the local vampire community.The story actually made a lot more sense, at least at the time, than this summary might suggest, but the show was always going to be more about pratfalls than plot. This was comedy best described as broad – lots of physical stuff, pop-culture references, knowing winks, arch acting, and all wrapped up in deliberate chaos.
The show had the feel of a late light Edinburgh Fringe show, perhaps performed to a boozy, easy to please audience. Admittedly, some routines therefore sat uneasily with an early evening audience, and there were times when you could sense the performers grappling for the right tone. Shit-faced Shakespeare repeatedly came to mind as one genre cliché after another was mercilessly parodied. Things were kept loose – sometimes very loose – with ample scope for improvising around failing props and the cheap and cheerful set dressing. Some of the biggest laughs were won by their reaction to missed lines, corpsing, and general fourth-wall busting tomfoolery. This occasionally lapsed into self-indulgence, and I could have done without Zachary Hunt literally making an arse of himself, but for the most part this was harmless nonsense not pretending to be anything else.
The trio managed to conjure up moments of inspired lunacy while also racking up a fair share of tumbleweed duds. Hit and miss was the order of the evening, with a manic pace and exuberant enthusiasm sometimes standing in for genuine wit, but it was hard not to warm to this personable crew. If you didn’t like that joke, seemed to be the mantra, worry not – there’s another one coming along shortly. In a particularly awkward routine, the gang parodied the stilted delivery of a school play, which only served to emphasise similarity rather than difference. By way of contrast, the musical numbers were great fun, and where the troupe looked to be at their most confident.
The best thing of all, however, was the obvious and pleasing chemistry between the three of them – they were having a great time and this definitely rubbed off onto the audience. Was this the finest, sharpest comedy I’ve seen? Not by a long way. Was it a welcome antidote to the dire times we’ve been living through? It certainly was.
