On the 3rd of January, I thought I would treat my boyfriend and take him to see a showing of ‘A Pissedmas Carol’ at Leicester Square Theatre for his birthday. He had been saying how he wanted to see a Sh*itfaced Showtime performance, so I thought this would be perfect.
Sh*tfaced showtime basically put on productions that are partly improvised where one member of the cast gets drunk beforehand, and then is given even more alcohol when a few members of the audience before the show begins are given a signal for the person getting drunk that night to get another drink. Obviously, the actor/actress who is getting drunk frequently changes, and there is someone that is always there to make sure they are safe. This of course adds comedy due to the actions of the drunk actor/actress themselves, but it also allows the show to be improvised, as the other actors and actresses draw off of the actions of the drunk person. At least, this was the case for the show I saw, and it was very funny. The improvised nature also means that the endings change, depending on what happens each night during the performance. Our ending was completely different to the actual ending of the Charles Dicken’s book A Christmas Carol, but made sense as it linked to all the events that had unravelled during the play.
The partly improvised and drunk nature of the actor/actress did mean the show was only an hour long, but this felt like a perfect time as I feel if this was just over 2 hours like I initially thought it would be, it may have lost its comedic elements. It was in a nice small theatre too, feeling more like a comedy club than a theatre that I am used to going to, but that added to the atmosphere.
The show itself was absolutely hilarious with the actors and actresses being fantastic at improvising certain parts, and the drunk actress during the showing I attended was highly amusing. Even a member of the audience was selected and had to dress up in a costume, which made me glad that we had not got front row seats, whilt I giggled from our seats two rows from the back.
I got cheap tickets through TimeOut, which meant I wasn’t able to choose our seats, so of course we were right near the back, but I feel it was worth it because we still had a good view, and saved money, especially as the show was only an hour long.
After seeing this show, I would not only love to see more performances by Sh*tfaced Showtime as they would each be unique with different actors and actresses, as well as different members getting drunk each night and influencing different events, but also performances by Sh*t-faced Shakespeare too. I am a fan of Shakespeare and would love to see a Shakespeare production adapted in this way.
The next performance Sh*t-faced Shakespeare are doing is Macbeth, so if feel you want to experience the craziness for yourself, be sure to get tickets. They can be purchased via Ticketmaster, but if you are like me and like cheap seats, I am going to wait for them to become available on TimeOut or TodayTix!