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The Review - THEATRE by SCOTT PEARSE
Published: 24 September 2009

‘Churchill: five minutes on the royals’

THE UNIMPORTANT HISTORY OF BRITAIN
Lion and unicorn

THREE contestants sit down for a game of Just a Minute. BEEP! “Hesitation,” exclaims Joseph Stalin, “there was a pause so big I could drive tank right through.” Winston Churchill looks dejected; at any other time speaking about the Royal Family for 12 seconds would be easy. Gandhi sits rubbing a sore spot inflicted by Stalin.
This is but one of the sharply written, hilarious sketches in The Unimportant History of Britain, which reworks British history using cultural references from today. See the mysteries of Stonehenge solved by the detectives of CSI, Devon, and the life of Henry VII retold as a tawdry soap opera.
Written by and starring Robert Blackwood and Nick Cowell, this production is more than just a re-imagining of history. The writers have struck up a bond over many of the great British sketch comedies of the past, most obviously Monty Python, Little Britain and the Two Ronnies. This is in no way detrimental to the show, which reminds us that comedy is as much a part of British cultural identity as the events that create history.
Blackwood, Cowell and Polly Eachus deliver brilliant comic turns with laugh-out-loud lines at every turn. This production is perhaps unimportant, but it is certainly an entertaining history of Britain.
Until October 11
020 7485 9897

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