The Game's Afoot

Review by: Paul Towers, 01 September 2017

The Game’s Afoot by Tom Taylor

Upstairs @ The Western, 1 September 2017

“the laughs come thick and fast.”

Tom Taylor is a very funny multi award winning comedian whose usual genre is silly musical comedy. This year he has branched out into what can only be described as spoof detective stories and is touring with a double bill of  The Game’s Afoot, Try The Fish and The Man With The Twisted Hip.

From the minute Charlie Montegue, narrator, amateur detective and all round silly ass walks on stage the laughs come thick and fast. With more groan inducing puns than an entire series of Bake Off, Taylor’s self penned monologues are peppered with enough characters to exhaust his limited repertoire of voices (his words) with often excruciating accents.

The first half is a send up of all those Agatha Christie country house murder mysteries as 1930’s Charlie is brought in the prevent a murder. And fails miserably.

The second half  is a parody of those European heist films of the 70’s as Charlie tries to work out who stole a diamond secreted in a piece of art.

This was the first show of Upstairs at The Western’s autumn season and kicked it off with a sell out performance.

The Game’s Afoot (etc) had a hugely successful Edinburgh Festival this year and is touring throughout September and October. Full details at www.tomedy.co.uk/charlie-montague

 Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/

First published on Western Gazette and PubTheatre Blog