Sh!t-faced Shakespeare is a Fringe show that does exactly what it says on the tin. This season’s focus being the famous comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Despite the show being one of the bard’s most famous plays, it is probably a minor reason why so many audience members choose to attend with even some repeat goers.

To the uninitiated, the rules of the show are fairly simple. A different cast member is chosen to drink for four hours every night before the show to see what hilarity will ensue. We have a compere played by Jessica Brindle, to ensure the behaviour does not go too overboard and so the show remains relatively on time, and whose interruptions actually provided some of the best comedy relief. There are added extras such as audience participation which involves someone joining in the show, props including a confetti cannon, and a horn to stop the show and give the already inebriated actor more booze.

The concept has served the production well, having toured around the world for 14 years and attracting a large audience at the Fringe. On a Friday night too, when the drinks are already flowing the mood is set for a good time. However, this form of comedy seemed to rely on a lot of swearing and the drunken member interrupting or stretching out nearly every scene. Unexpectedly the remaining cast go along with the interruptions caused by Flora Sowerby this evening, altering their script which was admittedly fun to watch. The overall feeling left though for this reviewer was frustration, though I may be in the minority. Marketed as a high-brow performance that meets low-brow comedy, when in reality neither lived up to the expectation.

Instead what you have is a lower-budget pantomime without the music covers, drag stars, or well-rehearsed script. If you needed further evidence to the cheapness of the comedy, the outfits include exaggerated cod-pieces and at one point a sex doll is thrown around the stage. This is instead, utter chaos. In theory this should allow for some genuine funny moments. In reality it means that the moments for pure comedy are few and far between as the ultimate gag of letting a drunk co-star derail the show and be forced to rely on them to provide the comedy gets real old real fast.

At the very least they can truly claim no two nights are the same, perhaps then this was an off night – but the packed audience reception would happily tell me otherwise.

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing is at Pleasanc at EICC – Pentland until Sun 25 Aug 2024 (except Mon 19th) at various times