Biscuit Barrel: Double Stuffed

• Marissa Burgess
• 22 August 2019

This article is from 2019

credit: Rebecca Barnett

Sketches that are silly, saucy and simple

Like the box of cookies your gran's had since 1995, this Biscuit Barrel is packed with a myriad of fragments. Not that they're stale, as the hit rate of their sketches is high and there's clearly a keen imagination at work. Some skits are effectively one-liners with visuals. Dropped something on the floor? Don't even think about picking it up, as you'll probably miss an entire sketch.

Though the work here is fairly routine in its execution – the acting is fine and the theatrical devices are largely employed as you'd expect – Double Stuffed is certainly slick. The six-strong team dive in and out of each scene with all members present on stage for most of them; it could get messy but somehow it doesn't.

To prevent audience confusion there is a linking device: the nicely random and self-referential weaving in of an attempted pizza delivery that no one seems to know how it was ordered. The team also employ a cheeky amount of below-the-belt material but they're at their best when being plain silly; often this is in their simplest skits such as the one featuring the sun, moon and earth, or the surreal torture of a piece of cheese. A lot of fun.

theSpace on the Mile, until 24 Aug, 10.50pm, £8 (£6.50).