A month after the stage spinoff of Ben Elton’s sitcom about William Shakespeare opened in the West End in 2020, theatres were closed just as they were by bubonic plague in the Bard’s own time. More than two years on and Upstart Crow is back, though this time in a different playhouse.
Bar a couple of lines about levelling up, the show is the same mix of clever and oafish, worshipful and mocking – a vehicle for panto acting and a machine-gun barrage of gags. Some of the humour is rooted in a deep appreciation of Shakespeare’s work, others in the belief that calling a penis a “cod-dangle” is innately hilarious. Sean Foley’s arch, knowing production proceeds at a hectic pace that’s exhausting to watch.
