Goodbear

115270 original

The dilemma that all sketch shows encounter is whether to simply present a succession of unrelated skits, or to try and find an overarching theme that ties the seeming randomness together. Goodbear place themselves halfway between these two options, which makes for a confusing experience. A fast-forwarding clock implies that their show condenses a day into an hour, but there are many sketches whose chronology is unimportant. And a closing scene about mayflies refers back to previous scenes, but in a manner that strives for profundity rather than attaining it. Perhaps they would have been better off simply offering up their cavalcade of comic moments.

For the duo draw well on their individual talents. Henry Perryment does a good line in genuine emotion, while Joe Barnes performs youthful smarm. Their interplay is well-honed, and the whole is highly physical and deftly choregraphed. But it's also overproduced, with incidental music and lighting changes overegging transitions that the performers themselves are well able to communicate.

Perhaps a slower, more stripped-back approach would allow the characters and performers to breathe more, utlising more fully the duo's evident dramatic skills. As it is, characters appear for a single gag and then are gone. The only recurring skit concerns two Swedish cyclists, who also seem like the least grounded characters on display. But there's a lot that's funny here, demonstrating invention and craft, once you get past the framework that gets in the way.