Low Hanging Fruit: Not Quite Write

• Arusa Qureshi
• 16 August 2016

This article is from 2016

Laying bare the writing process through a series of promising sketches

Based on the premise of a failed fictional sketch show, Not Quite Write bravely embraces the world of not-so-brilliant comedy, with bad jokes and cheap puns in tow. Oxford student comics Low Hanging Fruit imagine the writers' room of 'The Great British Sketch Off', where anything goes for those all-important ratings. What follows is a series of random and occasionally daft sketches, eventually descending into chaos as the four writers struggle to negotiate the many awful suggestions they receive from the wider public.

On the whole, the script is cleverly written, allowing Low Hanging Fruit to succeed in their portrayal of failure, though such an oxymoron may sound banal. Their submission to the various clichés is exaggerated at times but it's this aspect which ultimately keeps the show from sinking. The Sherwoods skit, for example, mocks laugh-track backed American sitcoms like The Brady Bunch but with a twist, and elsewhere, there's a routine that features an unaware couple viciously arguing to the lyrics of 'Karma Chameleon'.

Not Quite Write is not meant to be profound. Instead, it's an hour of consciously silly sketches from a promising quartet, with the aim of highlighting a different side to the writing process.

TheSpace at Jury's Inn, until 20 Aug, 8.40pm, £7.50 (£5).