Mates: The Improvised 90s Sitcom - The Big Room at Just The Tonic at The Caves - Edinburgh Fringe Review

Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, some of the most popular 90’s sitcoms that are still known and loved today, and for Mates Improv, the perfect inspiration for an incredibly funny hour of silliness back at the Edinburgh fringe after previous successful seasons. There are a lot of choice at the fringe if you want to see something improvised, and these groups of talented performers have to do something to make themselves stand out from the crowd, and a small team of three performers improving a 90s style sitcom from audience suggestions does just that.

Alex Keen, Rachel E Thorn and Hugh Clark are a wonderful team, bouncing off the energy of each other, laughing at each others jokes and feeding off the audience laughter just as much. Over the hour, we are treated to see ‘episodes’ of Mates, the 90s sitcom, with major plot points decided by the audience, with suggestions including marathon, Hull and professional wrestling.

In the stories we got to see, we witnessed Hugh becoming obsessed with the invention of DVD’s, no matter the risks it takes to create such great modern technology, who knew DVD’s came from mines underneath New York City! Against this chaos, we saw Rachel develop a relationship with a shipping business worker from Hull and Alex try his hand at both marathon running and wrestling, with hilarious results.

The three performers jump between playing many different characters, with music fitting the theme and time period illustrating the shift between scenes, or would we call them ad breaks here. Nothing here is taken too seriously, and it is crystal clear that the cast are having just as much fun as the audience with each performer often encouraging each other to go on with what ever crazy idea had just popped into their heads, creating further madness and hilarity.

Whilst not everyone has seen Frasier, Seinfeld or even Friends, these sitcoms are so greatly engrained into modern popular culture and our general understanding of this genre of TV Comedy, that everyone can recognise elements such as the subtle (or not so subtle) breaking of the fourth wall, the overexaggerated looks to one other and, of course, the famous ‘to be continued’. Therefore, this production has something for everyone to love, something for everyone to find funny and elements that remind everyone of the famous sitcoms that we know and love.

If you are looking for an hour of light-hearted silliness that feels like three mates just having a great time with each other and the audience, then you can’t really go wrong with ‘Mates: The Improvised 90s sitcom’.