At the Movies: Mafia? Western? Sci-fi? Blueprints for Devised Comedy

Comedy has often been a much-maligned genre, but in the last few years it has enjoyed a renaissance, largely through the work of Mischief Theatre and via the wizardry of Splendid Theatre Company. And now we have a trio beginning with J (Josh, James and John), collectively known as the Sleeping Trees (a Monty Python/League of Gentleman mash up) who have compiled three Blueprints for devised comedy: Mafia? Western? Sci-fi?

These plays were performed at Edinburgh and on small regional tours between 2014 and 2017 using a poor-theatre aesthetic of minimal set, band accompaniment and detailed lighting to achieve the spoof. This well-presented set of scripts includes colour photos, detailed stage directions and colourful symbols to indicate the lighting state. Each page has many entertaining footnotes about what the boys did live at that point in the script (usually clowning antics and madcap extempore routines).

In the same tradition as Patrick Barlow's The 39 Steps (but not nearly as clever), what they lack in terms of plot and verbal wit they compensate for with surreal physical theatre and a whole host of characters. Mafia? loosely borrows from The Godfather and follows Tommy, Johnny and Don Cologne from the bar to the butchers and the casino. The body count is high after many chases and shoot-outs, including the tragic death of Mr Tiddles the cat!

Each script requires each of the three actors to play 12–18 parts and the multi-roling is hard to imagine on the page but must have been very funny on stage. Sleeping Trees have invented their own word for a transition: the ‘phfft’, where time and place change with bewildering speed. In Western? food puns abound and the action is high octane.

In Sci-Fi? references to Boyzone lyrics and pig farming pepper the script and footnotes.

It is refreshing to find comic scripts and laddish humour in these troubled times. The scripts are suitable for KS4 and up, featuring their fair share of F-words and ‘willy jokes’, which may not be to everyone's tastes. If you like slapstick and surreal physical theatre, then these blueprints could be for you.