Comedy duos and the murder mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle have at least one thing in common - they tend to exclude women from the central action.
A large part of the joke, therefore, in LipService’s latest literary spoof is that its two protagonists Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding are women thinly disguised as men. They take on the questionable sexuality of Holmes and Watson and have no fear of the kind of self-deprecating foolery associated with the likes of Laurel and Hardy.
The rest of the comedy resides in exaggerated height difference, a blatantly silly cast of characters and imagination-stretching gags, such as steam powered scissors for cutting chives.
Directed by Gwenda Hughes, it is a fast paced brand of humour that is zany, dated and innocent, framed by Kate Owen’s fittingly naive set.
It had the Greenwich audience chortling and on occasions the ad-libbing actresses struggled not to join in. Indeed, the show is based on the opposite of a suspension of disbelief.
We are repeatedly reminded of the absurdity that a cast of two should be playing anyone from the Musical Motherless Twins to Death Defying Dan to Lydia Shotoff to Holmes and the not-too-bright Watson.
At the same time, the conventions of the source material are affectionately sent up.
Depending on your tastes, the consequence is you are either left longing to take refuge in the original or splitting your sides, happy in the knowledge this female comic duo is at least as funny as any male double act.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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