Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Maggie Fox, Sue Ryding.
For anyone who remembers the excellent and surreal comedy that The Goons, provided radio listeners in the 1950’s, the two women that makes up the strangely compelling and brilliant Lip Service Theatre Company are very much in a similar and genuinely thrilling mould.
The Unity Theatre last had Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding in the outstanding production of Withering Looks and this latest sideways look at Nordic Noir drama, the very funny Inspector Norse (Or the Girl With Two Screws Left Over) is yet another reason to catch these two intelligent women who seem to be able to delight audiences with ease and with one raised eyebrow.
The comparison between Spike Milligan, the brilliant Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe shouldn’t be tossed around like old wool. It is a resemblance that is fully deserved, from the surreal and insanely excellent script to the way they have the audience joining in quite comfortably with the organised madness, this is Goons territory and slowly and surely these two women are making it their own.
Inspector Norse takes the current passion for Nordic Noir such as Wallander and The Killing and gives it a warm cuddly feeling that allows for situations involving a homage to a famous musical band from Sweden, the long and insufferable lengthy driving scenes where no one speaks and small talk is wrapped and stunted and where every moose takes its life into its own hooves.
What makes the show so very good is that the two women know exactly how to perform to a packed out audience. They are able to garner a laugh from one look, one word or even by gently bringing the crowd into the theatrical arena whilst leaving them in the safety of their own chairs. This takes real skill and after many years honing this ability both Ms. Fox and Ms. Ryding are the new mistreses of this art.
Supremely funny, charming and the wonderful home-made feel was so appealing that it could be seen as being outrageously criminal not to enjoy it.
Ian D. Hall