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Review: Run At It Laughing (Wilton’s Music Hall)

Review by Dan Sinclair


Run At It Laughing consisted of 10 rehearsed readings.


My hands up, I’ve got to admit that my knowledge of Italian comedy, or if you will, commedia, is honestly limited to Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors and that episode of Inside No.9 where they wear the masks and do a bank heist or something. I’ve coasted by on a handful of occasions where someone will mention something about the old Italian commedia plays, and I’ll nod along and say, ‘yes, hmm, the Harlequin, very true.’ And it’s worked a treat so far.


There are traces in pantomime, Punch and Judy, sitcoms, but for this instance, improv theatre is the king. At their performance in the late 16th century, these plays were documented by only a few sentences, a vague idea of a plot around which the actors would improvise the rest. Presented by Run At It Shouting, Mark Ravenhill brings 10 new comedies, rehearsed readings of full scripts based on these premises, with a rotating cast of around 100 professional actors. It’s big, it’s bold, and it’s brave. And it’s very camp.



Generously, all the creative team and actors donated their time for this project, and all profits will be sent to nia, a London-based community service offering support and services for women and girls who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution. For more information on how to support this charity, the link is included at the bottom of the review.


The first of the two rehearsed readings I saw was Run At It Toothless, as the rest of the lineup, it has an original script and direction from Mark Ravenhill. It did seem that Wilton’s Music Hall had been converted into a Ravenhill appreciation society, simply trying to enjoy my Diet Coke (sponsorship incoming), I was bombarded in the lobby by conversations lavishing borderline sycophantic praise on Ravenhill. Folks, just let the man write ten silly little plays, do a bit of clowning, have some fun and wear his comfies without feeling the need to call him the genius of our times. But with that being said, from at least the two I saw, he’s crafted some proper nifty and entertaining stories whilst injecting some charming direction in a remarkably short space of time.



But what of this first nifty story? Run At It Toothless follows the beautiful and widowed Isabella and her plot to win the hand of local pretty boy, Oratio. However, Oratio’s father also has eyes for Isabella. Plenty of eyes and wandering hands, but very little teeth after being fooled into having emergency dentistry by the hapless servants of Rome. In Isabella’s mad quest for love, there's scheming, witchcraft, perfectly executed musical numbers, and enough urine gags to fill a water bottle during a 10 hour roadtrip with no service stations. It’s bizarre, but the unravelling chaos creates some proper belly laugh moments. 


A hilarious script was held up by a phenomenal cast of 10. Special mentions go to Georgina Hart’s Arlecchina, bone dry and endlessly silly. Victoria Tunbridge as the afterthought sister - Flaminia - with a remarkable commitment to playing the tragic lover completely straight, then gave the payoff of granting her the biggest laugh of the night, she earned it, a measured and smart comedic performance. Lastly, Hannah Van Der Westhuysen as the young lover Oratio brought an overwhelming sense of ease and charm to every scene they had, a real sense of stage presence and quick comic instinct.


Photos by Bec Austin. All taken at an earlier reading of Run At It Horny.
Photos by Bec Austin. All taken at an earlier reading of Run At It Horny.

It has to be said that the second play I caught, Run At It With A Plan, felt like the weaker of the two offerings. The story centres around Cataldo, a local teacher who currently tutors the stompy teenage Oratio, yet Cataldo has eyes for the boy's mother, Isabella. A plan is orchestrated by Isabella and her servant Pedrolina to teach him a lesson that he will never forget. Yet in this adaptation, there is a genuine sense of threat; Cataldo is not just the comic, handsy old man as seen in many a cringeworthy sitcom c. 1970s, but is explicitly stated to be a dangerous and prolific sexual predator who they plan to castrate. All in all, it makes for a premise that is, unsurprisingly, not all that funny, meaning that a majority of the comedy in this Mark Ravenhill script falls back on swearing, silly faces and funny voices as opposed to the genuinely hilarious story of the earlier Run At It Toothless.


In this second Italian iteration, it is glaringly noticeable that the archetypal characters only allow for the actors to hit near identical beats to the performers in the previous script, eg: the scheming servant Pedrolina functions and sounds the same across both stories no matter the actor, the same goes for the outrageous accent and jokes for the droopy sword bearing Spavento. But I know, I know, that’s the point - that’s what these plays are, it’s like getting annoyed at Punch and Judy being the same whether you see them in Bognor or Brighton! It really is, then, just a matter of scale. I wouldn’t choose to watch 180 to 900 minutes of Punch and Judy shows either. In isolation, not a problem, but with the script presented in the same manner, written in an identical style with near identical characters and character interpretations, it has its natural limit.



Special mention in this second reading has to go to Lottie Grogan as the baseball-capped Oratio. She had some of the strongest gags of the script and hit each one on the head; childish, over the top, but still in a way that lets you in. Across the board, performances were strong, and whilst the other performances across the weekend feature a varied cast, these two were both female-only casts. A reclamation of the grim lecherous comedy found in these Italian classics, it is political and still rare to see a strong cast of female comic actors fart, wee, shag and cause camp mayhem on the stage of Wilton’s Music Hall.


The weekend, Run At It Laughing, has the sense of being one big joyous exercise, playing around with these relics of theatre history. Instead of instantly modernising and setting them in, I don’t know, insert 2025 contemporary setting here and call it a day, Mark Ravenhill lets the classic stories breathe, and the actors have some fun. I can happily say that I see a future for Ravenhill’s Commedia experiment, following recent news that he is offering the rights to these scripts for free, in aid of the women’s support charity, nia, and I very much looking forward to seeing one in full production soon… just maybe not all ten.


Run At It Laughing plays at Wilton’s Music Hall from 9th - 10th May.




Photos by Bec Austin.

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