Taking my seat in the Corpus Playroom for Robert Eyers’ Five Go off on One! - in the front row, with crutches I might add, feeling rather conspicuous and terrified of the possibility of audience participation - I thought I knew what to expect. I thought that I was in for a fun, if unoriginal jaunty little mockery of the Famous Five novels written by behemoth of the children’s literature scene, Enid Blyton. How wrong I was. This is a fantastic romp through a surrealist, satirical, silly marsh of comedy genius.

Performance, script, set and music come together in a rather wonderful messy harmony. Eyers’ characters are ridiculous from start to finish, and brought to life by a vivacious cast. It would seem unfair to single out individuals for praise, but a special mention must be given to Tim Vaughn and Rhiannon Shaw, whose boundless energy drove the piece as they performed the role of stagehands manipulating the set, and engaging with the plot. Moreover the pair’s versatility was remarkable as they played multiple characters superbly: inhabiting an entirely new persona, rather than just doing a stupid voice, as many would have. But fear not stupid voice fans - there are plenty to go round. Naturally one cannot comment on such a play without mentioning the five (or four, after little Timmy disappeared). Millie Foy, Will Dalrymple, Lauren Brown and Alex Harris all bring the energy and enthusiasm demanded by the roles. They do Eyers’ superb writing justice in their performances throughout.

Eyers’ writing also deserves great credit. Obviously, all the well-known characteristics of the mystery-solving gang are present: there are myriad enthusiastic cheers; references to the differences between boys’ and girls’ school; and, of course, countless picnics. And as we all know, picnics solve EVERYTHING! However there is much more to this play than merely being a parody. A satirical news broadcast in which all the headlines are alternative narratives to many of the common hashtags seen in the past year, with a hilarious other meaning given to the #RhodesMustFall campaign a particular highlight. Make no mistake about it though, parts of this play were the most bizarre moments I have ever witnessed on stage. Usually in a good way: one rather strange exchange between Miles Stopher’s Uncle Quentin, and Vaughn’s Shop Lady was decidedly odd, yet so very, very hilarious. As is often the case with surreal comedies, some moments of weirdness missed the mark slightly, but enough worked brilliantly that the public were in fits on several occasions.

It could be argued that the play went on a little too long, but too much of a good thing isn’t exactly terrible: you could feel the audience’s joy as they trapped out of the venue. So go on, do yourself a favour, share in the madness, and have a jolly good laugh when you go to see this fantastic piece of madcap theatre.

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!