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The Sunset Five

Hilarious romp about a pub quiz team on a casino heist
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The Sunset Five

Hilarious romp about a pub quiz team on a casino heist

Billing a show as 'Hot Fuzz meets Ocean’s Eleven' sets high expectations for both comedy and plot twists but DugOut Theatre deliver. The story is narrated by a cowboy hat-wearing quizmaster with Wild West delusions, who drawls the yarn of the Chipworth pub quiz team who took on a business giant and staged a casino heist.

The tight script captures a similar humour to Hot Fuzz, mocking plot conventions and the convenient coincidences needed to evolve a storyline. There's big laughs throughout and it's an ensemble effort with the six-strong cast adept at both comic timing and character acting.

The Sunset Five plays to the format of heist films with flashbacks, split stage and montages. While cinematic, it also makes innovative use of live performance: there's a brilliant re-enactment of a YouTube voice mash up and the cast create their own mood music on guitars, flutes and drums. Instruments and noises are then looped live to create their own sound effects, the narrator constructing a packed pub with voice looping alone. Like the films it aspires to, The Sunset Five is a light-hearted romp with a talented cast and laughs a plenty.

Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 19), 5.40pm, £9–£11 (£8–£10).

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