The Comedy About a Bank Robbery – Criterion Theatre

Samuel Fogell, Matt Hunt and Holly Sumpton in The Comedy About a Bank Robbery at the Criterion Theatre, London. Picture: Robert Workman

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery continues at the Criterion Theatre, London, booking until 7 April 2019.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

It’s hardly profound to say so, but it occurred to me during The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (on this occasion, a performance that marked the show’s second birthday in the West End) that if there is one thing audiences are craving for in the current economic and social climate it is laughs – and this show delivers those in spades.

Indeed it is testament to the talent and originality that have made Mischief Theatre such a force to be reckoned with in recent years that the company continues to be so successful in its farcical endeavours.

Bank Robbery takes a different steer to Mischief’s previous productions – The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong – in that there is no amdram company putting on a show premise. Instead there is an actual story – of sorts.

It’s the summer of 1958 and escaped convict Mitch (Matt Hunt) has a plan to steal the priceless diamond which has been entrusted, incomprehensibly, to the Minneapolis City Bank. Mitch is hoping he will be helped in his grand plan by the not-so-law-abiding prison warden Cooper (Samson Ajewole), his trickster girlfriend Caprice (Holly Sumpton) and the maintenance man Sam (Sam Fogell). FYI, Sam is really a petty criminal, not the maintenance man, but he had to come up with some kind of story when Mitch discovered him in Caprice’s bedroom.

But it’s not just these characters who have a long distance relationship with the truth; we soon discover that “everyone in this town is a crook”, not least the conniving bank manager himself – Mr Robin Freeboys (also Caprice’s father), played here with relish by Leonard Cook.

This character’s name on it own speaks volumes about where writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields pitch the level of witty wordplay. Every ounce of humour is squeezed from past-paced exchanges over just this one surname and it is almost impossible to be swept up in the silliness of it all.

Added to the pun-filled dialogue is some super physical comedy and pretty impressive set-pieces directed by Mark Bell with Nancy Zamit for Mischief Theatre. These include the bedroom mishaps hinted at above and a brilliantly conceived scene in which we see Freeboys and his exploited, elderly intern Warren (Peter McGovern) in the bank back office from the view of the robbers crawling through the ventilations shafts above (set design by David Farley).

One of the reasons I was invited along to the show was because 1950s doo-wop musical numbers play a part in the storytelling and particularly in the rounding up of events that take place as one set piece transitions to another.

In the scheme of things, there aren’t that many of these to speak of, but those that are included do make a big impression thanks to some rather splendid renditions from McGovern and Jenna Augen (who also plays bank clerk Ruth – Sam’s mum and seducer of Jack Baldwin’s downtrodden FBI agent). Augen turns out be an all-round delight, oozing personality in every scene she is in and always nailing her comedy timing.

A special mention must also go to Chris Leask as ‘Everyone Else’, throwing all his energy into playing every other character in the piece. The fight in which he plays three very different gents hoping to win Caprice’s affections is a tour de force, reminiscent of silent comedies of old.

Occasionally the pace slows in Act II, there are times when the production values look a little rough around the edges, and the morals of the concept are just a tad dubious (I feel sorry for the seagulls), but it looks like The Comedy About a Bank Robbery has plenty of life in it yet. Long may the laughs continue.

Lisa Martland

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Interview – we grab a word with The Comedy About a Bank Robbery’s Peter McGovern