I went into Judge Judy's Buzz World expecting an hour of bizarre, surreal comedy: winner of the Harry Porter Prize, thereby carrying the Footlights’ seal of approval, I thought the show would be packed out with a laugh a minute. What unfolded was far from this: it was funny, with moments of hilarity, but also subtle, complex and incredibly dark.

Judge Judy – “no, not that one” – is a vigilante superhero, like Batman but without the gadgets and cape, killing killers and “keeping Middle America safe”. Her story is confusing: we were promised her ‘greatest hits’ and got a couple of stories, alongside a half-baked ‘origin story’ and various meanderings through her biography. Clearly a lot of thought had gone into Rachel Tookey’s script. Judy is a multi-faceted character with depth and complexity. A lot of the time, however, this was not always evident; her development throughout the show was inconsistent and often surprising, particularly the ending. Moments of hilarity suddenly became very dark, with the balance between the two often skewed. Quite a few jokes fell flat, while many of the biggest laughs came from minor lines or funny names. Running jokes were clever and the extended stories were definitely the best parts.

It was thoroughly absorbing and Eve Delaney did a phenomenal job as Judy. A one-woman show is a difficult task and she pulled it off almost perfectly: a few lines were fluffed but she remained in character, an impressive feat of endurance. Her accent never faltered, even through variations in tone, and when she jumped to different, caricatured characters she managed to pull off dialogue with aplomb. She gave Judy a wonderful three-dimensionality.

The direction was, for the most part, very animated: the whole stage was used with some very creative props. Three balloons, popped farcically by a stagehand, made for effective criminals; cauliflowers and mangoes appeared from nowhere but added wonderfully surreal relief. Clever lighting was used to great effect: however, I’m still not sure why the jukebox, with its HAL 9000 pulsating red light, was covered with a sheet throughout.

Unfortunately, there were quite a lot of technical errors: sound cues, particularly gunshots, were missed, removing some of the power from immersive anecdotes. Bits of music and background sound sometimes made Delaney inaudible. Several country hits punctuated the show at strange points, leaving the overall structure and chronology unclear. A number of sound effects were, however, great. If the production team used a Foley artist, then this was thoroughly impressive. 

Overall, it is a very impressive performance; the show itself has great potential but requires reworking to make it entirely successful. A bit more comic relief is needed and Judy’s development over the course of the play could be tweaked. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable show: I laughed but I was also moved by a few profound moments. A welcome break from revision (Who’s still working at 11pm anyway?), Judge Judy's Buzz World is worth a try and those involved are definitely worth watching.