Let’s Make a Movie

Comedian, writer and actor Richard Soames returns with his mix of amateur filmmaking and improvisation in Let’s Make a Movie.

As Soames selects members of the audience for the roles of leading man, best boy, gaffer and lighting technician in the spontaneous feature, it becomes clear this will be quite an interactive theatre piece. Following this, the title – Vertigo 2 – and setting of the film are chosen, two suggestions from members of the audience combining to make Alaskelators, while the camera on stage captures live footage from the crowd as the improviser jokes about his leading man: “We can remove that beard in post (production).”

The comedian’s show entails brief and funny lessons on fundamental filmmaking techniques, like introducing the hero, tension and sounds effects, whereby a member of the audience produces noises on a mood board as a Foley artist, with random household objects: keys, a door handle and toilet brush. Soames’s gift of visual editing does not go amiss in tonight’s performance, as he presents John Cusack’s famous scene from Say Anything, Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes blaring out of a Boom Box, which the comedian alters to play a GCSE German comprehension test. Soames is a quick thinker and improviser, his set involving witty quips even when things go slightly awry on stage due to technical difficulties. Not only a comical writer and actor, Soames plays the guitar, sings and raps well over blockbuster film clips.

The performer presents home movies of him and his brother re-enacting scenes from The Matrix and Snakes on a Plane, adding a nostalgic factor to the entertainment. He jokes about trying to make his career choice look good, persuading the crowd that he is genuinely happy. This is all in jest, as Soames reunites with his brother one more time for a continuation of their film, The Famer: Vertigo 2, the result that was made during tonight’s performance, cut and edited to include audience participation, which is the gem that really shines.

Selina Begum

Let’s Make a Movie was at Network Theatre on 24^th February 2019.

Read more reviews from our Vault Festival 2019 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Vault Festival website here.