Clever Peter at Edinburgh Fringe 2009: Review

Back at the Fringe after a well-received 2008 debut, Clever Peter are clearly enthusiastic about their craft: this is an hour crammed full of frantic energy. Over 20 feverish, madcap sketches are ostensibly woven around the rather pedestrian opening of a man attempting to deal with a call centre, and the characters he meets on his quest.

The show is a schizophrenic mix of sinister, twisted characters, but also of situations that border on the mundane. The darker sketches are those that bring out the best in the trio. With outrageous comedy, there's a fine line between sanity and taking things too far; this troupe walk it very well indeed. Although a little less graphic than last year's gorilla-related anal rape, there's still a pretty crude sense of humour involved: plastic penises, viking rapists and depictions of war-time necrophilia aren't the traditional tools of the sophisticated comic. But this isn't a thoughtless, outrageous-for-the-sake-of-it act, and there are glimpses of some excellently-constructed narrative comedy.

Ultimately, the relative inexperience of Clever Peter shows through in their writing. Despite some genuinely disturbing creations—Richard Eales-White's portrayal of a hopelessly unsuccessful magician is alarming and wretched in equal measure—the situations and characters tend just too often towards uninspiring stereotypes. The friends who can't quite pull it together as a couple and the evil mother-in-law are long-term staples of the sketch genre, and lively performances just can't rescue such unremarkable characters.

This is a competent, engaging performance of a show which unfortunately fails to capitalise on the obvious talents of its performers.