Sitting through a student show can be the most tedious hour of your life as common clichés are flogged to death, named comedians have their material ripped off and in-jokes are rife. Fortunately The Kama Suture rises above this.
While other sketch shows tend to opt for the “if we throw enough shit at a wall…” approach The Kama Suture has been judiciously pruned to leave a healthy mix of the sublime, surreal and satirical. Admittedly a number of the gags fall short, most noticeably an over ambitious and protracted Monty Python rip off, but these are amply bolstered by a wealth of definite “hits”.
Student shows are also notoriously renown for following the pop culture zeitgeist to the letter, so it is nice to see that the Medics Revue delve a bit further back into our collective consciousness (the Gladiators and Lemmings scenes are real treats) for their material.
While The Kama Suture certainly hits the right spots more often than not, the production still isn’t brilliant. It is a good hour’s entertainment, but the overall effect is brought down by some poor musical numbers and a few weak performances from certain cast members. If you’ve a spare hour before dinner it might be worth a look, but there is lots of better stuff out there.
3/5
Richard Biggs
