Review: Your Aunt Fanny and Improthon – Live Theatre, Newcastle

Pictured: All-girl sketch group, Your Aunt Fanny

From dating agency meltdowns to loft dwelling dog groomers, the Live Theatre’s Party Poppers Festival has something for everyone.

Kicking off with the launch of a new, all-girl sketch group Your Aunt Fanny, I arrive to find the theatre decked out in paper chains, staff dressed as nanas and mint humbugs on the bar.

The cast of six young women from Live’s acclaimed Youth Theatre start the show with a song and dance number, then launch into a flurry of high-energy comedy sketches, written alongside exciting new writers Laura Lindow (Theatre Tantaraa) and Lee Mattinson (Chalet Lines, Me & Cilla).

The group poke fun at ‘yummy mummies’, dating agencies, Betty’s Tea Rooms & the 2012 Olympics with an entertaining range of characters.

There’s plenty of gusto and very little consideration for their own dignity, but it’s great fun.

The Live Theatre’s Improthon, meanwhile, features two teams and an illustrious judge’s panel kept in hand by stern ref Bev Fox of The Suggestibles.

Like a Suggestibles show, the audience are asked to participate by giving prompts throughout the show, and this really helps nudge the fun, friendly atmosphere along.

As do the young cast, who bounce off each other in expert form considering their limited experience on stage.

Some serious competitiveness and naughty behaviour add twists and turns to the proceedings, which – spoiler alert – ends in a victory for the blue team, winning the coveted Improthon 2013 trophy (a pair of glasses and a nose spray painted gold).

All in all, then, an encouraging weekend for the North East’s up-and-coming comics. We look forward to seeing more.

Date of live review: Saturday 10 August and Sunday 11 August (at Live Theatre’s Party Poppers)