A five-star review from The List:
★★★★★ A trio of Victorian gentlemen humourists, the Penny Dreadfuls bring you the visually resplendent, aurally pleasurable Aeneas Faversham Forever, one of this year’s most scrumptious and comically edifying Fringe treats.
If you haven’t managed to book tickets for the remaining dates of our Fringe run, you can also catch the Dreadfuls – alongside the Pleasance’s other top sketch acts – at Sketchatron: Unwieldly, tonight in the Pleasance Courtyard at 11pm.
Sketchatron: Unwieldly presents the cream of Pleasance sketch comedy acts for one night only: the incredible line-up includes The Penny Dreadfuls, Tommy and the Weeks, Will & Greg, Idiots of Ants and Pappy’s Fun Club.
“An amazing night of sketch comedy from the strongest and most innovative groups around. A brilliant show.”
Critics Choice – Time Out
“A comedy extravaganza!”
Critics Choice – The London Paper
Sketchatron: Unwieldy – Thursday 21st August, Pleasance Beyond. Tickets £10.50 (£9)
Book online, call the Pleasance box-office on 0131 556 6550 or buy from any Edinburgh Comedy Festival venue in the city.
Yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday printed an interview feature with one of the Penny Dreadfuls, Thom Tuck:
Regulars on the circuit outwith the Fringe, their live work generally finds appreciative audiences. When they previewed a version of Aeneas Faversham Forever at the Brighton Festival Fringe in May, it won the Best Comedy Show award. It was a proud moment and one that was only slightly marred by the venue’s automatic announcing system which started each performance by introducing the group as ‘Anus Favours Ham’ in a mid-Atlantic twang.
Read the rest of the interview on their site.
Another pair of fine reviews!
★★★★★ ThreeWeeks:
How do you follow up a five-star, award winning show that took the Festival by storm last year? If you’re the Penny Dreadfuls you put on an even better show, a tour-de-force of Victorian-themed comedy that somehow manages to be even funnier than last year’s. A pastiche of Victorian adventure fiction, Aeneas Favisham Forever is packed to the bally rafters with top quality gags and whimsical buffoonery.
It would have been easy for the Penny Dreadfuls to rest on their laurels, or recycle old material, but instead they have developed the genre – the genre they created themselves – to new heights, packing in an insane number of indescribably funny and clever jokes. This is one of the Festival’s must-see events, as the sold-out room tonight demonstrated. Good show!
★★★★★ FringeReview.co.uk:
The audience file into a simple auditorium – no frills, except for a silent oblong of blue light against a centre black flat. An empty canvas to complement the frenetic energy and character minutae that is about to burst forth onto an eagerly awaiting audience. [...] The show is liberally peppered with moments of true brilliance, not least the use of shadow puppets (from Jeremy Bidgood) to depict chase scenes and legends. These too, are hilarious and silly in equal portions. [...]
If you like Spymonkey, if you remember Newman and Baddiel’s ‘History Today’ and if you just want to have a damnable good laugh, then be (very) entertained by Aeneas Faversham Forever.
August 21, 2008