Review: Sleeping Trees: World Tour, Wardrobe Theatre

After nearly ten years of off-kilter comedy, the hilarious Sleeping Trees return to more traditional sketch roots with their brand new show World Tour.

Unlike their recent genre-specific endeavours Mafia?, Sci-Fi? and Western?, the trio’s latest production is initially presented in a non-narrative format. A fourth-wall-busting opening of audience interaction quickly segues into the promise of ‘sketch drama’ (like sketch comedy but without the laughs), seemingly setting up an unstructured sketch comedy show. But before long, the group re-introduce their brand of clever comic storytelling.

The three performers (Joshua George Smith, John Woodburn and James Dunnell-Smith playing version of themselves) have been off on individual adventures around the globe, which they bring to life in creative fashion on stage. Each of their three plotlines has its own underlying storyline, linked together by a plane crash that separated them to begin with. There are numerous tricks and surprises that emerge slowly across the course of these vignettes, each peppered with running jokes and amusing callbacks.

Pic: Mark Dawson Photography

Throughout, all three have terrific comic timing – and the writing crackles through lively and well-pitched performances. Anyone aspiring towards sketch comedy will reap huge benefits from studying this meticulously paced hour of hilarity. The group seem to take real pleasure in every moment or word they deliver, and that enjoyment is infectious. It’s hard not to be excited wondering where they’ll take the adventure next.

From a Transylvanian hotel to a Hawaiian vacation gone horribly wrong, the show is filled with brilliant characters and surprising punchlines. Though it can at times feel like a collection of all the ideas that didn’t make it into previous shows, that’s hardly a complaint when the concept allows the group such a level of variety and freedom. A wall-themed musical chorus, in particular, steals the show halfway through, bringing a singularly high level of production value to the show.

Most importantly though, the performers’ charm and charisma remains intact despite the shift in genre, and is perhaps at its most accessible ever. The epic previous stories they’ve told may only exist in bite-size form here, but it’s to the benefit of presenting a more surprising show, and one that’s as funny as the group have ever been.

World Tour finds the award-winning comedy trio at their most creative, with nothing to rely on but the power of their own imagination and ideas, and it’s a very compelling change of direction. Their surreal, loud and fast-paced brand of humour should win over all those interested in seeing an intelligently funny journey through the minds of some of the UK’s most exciting young comic talents.

Sleeping Trees: World Tour continues at the Wardrobe Theatre until Sat, Sept 29. For more info, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/sleeping-trees-world-tour