Two days ago, in a small theatre located in Winsford I took my seat to watch the first ever public performance of ‘A Joke’ and would serve as the first of two previews before heading north where it will form part of the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

This is a new play by Dan Freeman; the creator/writer of ‘The Minister of Chance’, ‘The Light of September’ and the main constituent of Mundo Jazz.
Now this isn’t a review but my thoughts of the evening and confession time; I’m not a totally impartial observer since I had sponsored the play (well page 2 at least). This neatly introduces the fact this play is crowdfunded and various perks are on offer to help keep this show quite literally on the road. I’ll put enough links to make Jacob Marley blush at the end.

Now to the play itself… A tricky one this since I’m not going to spoil it but I have to write something and I think it is fair to at least give you an idea of what to expect.

The play is a three hander with each of our performers appearing onstage with knowledge of the world in general but nothing of themselves. As it progresses our three Joketeers(?!) go on a ‘Fools Journey’ navigating themselves through the structure of a joke and as a consequence life – after all what happens to a joke once it’s told?

To reveal more would be unfair but personally I saw within the performances various interpretations of the Fool, glimpses of Harry H Corbett and even homages to Flanagan and Allen. This may just be my imagination however but these thoughts crossed my mind as I watched.

Up to now I’ve not mentioned the cast. Our unnamed journeymen are played by Richard Oliver, Sylvester McCoy and Robert Picardo. Each provide a different perspective on their situation and are different characters despite being identically dressed (all costumes can be bought – I told you it was crowdfunded).