Simon Ward reviews Don’t Shoot The Messenger at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Co-writers Daniel Camou and Sam Plumbe have billed their new Camden Fringe show as ‘an office comedy of Shakespearean proportions’. For me, this works as the former, but the Shakespeare factor is rather limited. As the second of the Camden Fringe offerings I have seen to reference the Bard (Love in Shakespeare), I found myself once again thinking wistfully of Stoppard and Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. It is a wonderful idea to spin a whole world out of the incidental or sidelined characters of a great work. Unfortunately, in this case, the writers seem to have lost faith in the idea of uniting messengers from various plays in one mailroom. This leads to a rather disappointing preamble with a few messages which were frankly not easy to identify, although it does, in the end, build-up to one huge and genuinely terrifying message delivery challenge.

The setup is an old-fashioned mailroom of the kind one assumes barely exists anymore – a printer in one corner and an out-tray in the other. The one concession to modernity is that each message is scanned before making its way to the out-tray. Into this world of mind-numbing tedium comes Clint (Ewan Bruce) , replacing the beloved Kyle, who has left in suspicious, but unexamined circumstances. He joins Gavin (co-writer Sam Plumbe) and self-styled Team Leader Brian (Henry Calcutt). There is some fun to be had in the absurdity of the job, and the deadly seriousness with which the team take it. There are rituals and routines for everything, and a zealous determination to get everything right. Their mysterious overlords, only ever viewed remotely, ensure that the messengers are constantly reminded that they are all replaceable.

The piece comes into its own when faced with the one truly dreadful piece of news to be delivered. The build-up is laugh-out-loud funny and there are moments of poignant recognition of their own absurdity. There are some amusing and effective pieces of ensemble acting by the three players, under the direction of co-writer Daniel Camou. Their lives may be pointless in their windowless basement, but that does not mean that they cannot connect as human beings. Anyone who has worked in an office will be able to relate to the obscure office politics around where to sit and what mug you can use. And with the creeping dread that one day you will turn round and realise that you have been there for twelve long years…

All in all, this looks like a case of two ideas coming together and not quite gelling – the crazy world of the mailroom and the often unhappy lot of the Shakespearean messenger. Fully committing to one or the other would probably have made for a more coherent show. Nevertheless, it is a good, fun romp. And the theatre is blessedly air-conditioned.

Don’t Shoot The Messenger is running as part of the Camden Fringe at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, 42-44 Gaisford Street, London NW5 2ED until Saturday 16th August