Back after a successful run last year and a smattering of TV and radio appearances, the new show from the Penny Dreadfuls will surely not disappoint the fans that they have worked hard to cultivate. It would have been easy for the group to rest on the plaudits of last year, and return with the same show, but they’ve taken the harder road and present all-new material for this year’s festival.

 

The result is a show of charming whimsy and knock-about humour undercut with a vein of darkly surreal irony, perfectly demonstrated in sketches involving the sudden appearance of a racist fairy godmother and the final, magical journey of one man and his imaginary Spaniard.

 

The Victorian theme adds a spice of novelty to the standard sketch-show format, although the viewer never feels left behind in scenes about the Crimean War, Turkish spies or the rituals of the Magic Circle. The troupe’s skill is revealed in their equal willingness to hit the audience with immediate gags or to wait for the laugh, taking their time to set the scene and get the most out of the very well developed situations they present.

 

The show is only slightly hampered by an unfortunate venue and the lack of raking on the front rows means that some of the action at floor-level is lost, but the superb voice acting by all four performers more than compensates for this mild annoyance.

 

Unpredicable, intelligent and laugh out loud funny, Aeneas Faversham Returns is one of the real gems of the festival.