Jan Ravens at E4 Udderbelly
June 24, 2009 – 3:39 pm | by Allan McKay
Honestly, I was stone cold sober but I swear that the venue for this gig was inside an upside-down purple cow on London’s South Bank next to Hungerford Bridge, which made for a interesting, if somewhat surreal, setting for the evening. As an impressionist, Jan Ravens has an impressive CV including Spitting Image and Dead Ringers which automatically put her into the “worth a listen” bracket. The gig is part of the ongoing E4 Udderbelly series (which explains the unusual venue) currently taking place on the South Bank.
The gig wasn’t billed as a comedy event, more of “An Evening With…”, which is exactly how it played out. The venue was about half full the majority of the audience seemed to be there to see Jan Ravens rather than to watch whichever artist happened to be performing on that night.
The opening of the performance was an Anne Robinson impression using props which were stripped away symbolically to reveal the real Jan Ravens, giving a first taste of the confessional, behind the mask, nature of much of the material to come. The performance covered a variety of areas ranging from autobiography to a potted history of the impressionist’s art via a workshop in creating a Janet Street-Porter impression, light political satire and a lot of Fiona Bruce. There aren’t any belly laughs in the show, but there are a lot of interesting insights into the art of comedy and impressionism alongside the insights into the mind and motivation of Jan Ravens, including a swipe at the TV producers who relegate female impressionists to background roles, including the Spitting Image decision to have Margaret Thatcher voiced by a man (Steve Nallon).
The main theme of the evening seemed to be that it’s increasingly difficult to be an impressionist today, particularly a female one, because of the increasing pressure on female politicians and newsreaders to fit into a standardised image and persona, using the Blair babes as an example of the trend and Thatcher and Widdicombe as examples of the old school.
The concept of the evening, shining a light into some of the darker corners of the impressionist’s life and work, was reasonably successful and warmly appreciated by all of the audience at the conclusion. The one element which didn’t work at all for me was the piece at the end which combined all of the impressions previously demonstrated into 1 song. The song format seemed to dilute the effect of each impression by removing some of the characterisations which would normally allow us to recognise the character instantly and, ultimately didn’t work particularly well as a big finale.
Overall verdict? If you’re interested in more than just easy laughs and want to see behind the mask for an hour, this show is well worth seeing.
