The Evening Standard
Monday, 24 February 2003

Reviewed by Bruce Dessau

Battersea stirs to a show that is sharp, surreal and quirky.

What is it with great sketch comedy and yuppie enclaves? First Navelgazing at the Hen & Chickens in Islington and now this strikingly quirky show in Battersea.  The Dutch Elm Conservatoire is five sharp young men, who usually pen gags for others, but have clearly saved the weirdest, wisest cracks for themselves.

The humour here is difficult to pigeonhole. Certainly there are elements of Monty Python. When Stephen Evans, Jim Field Smith, Rufus Jones, Jordan Long and Renton Skinner started singing I was convinced they were going to break in The Lumberjack Song, not a disquietingly reverential rendition of What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

There are also charcoal shades borrowed from the League of Gentlemen's palette. A mock oral history recalled arcane sexual acts which kept the civilian end up during the Blitz. An archaeological team investigating neolithic peat bog trackways was derailed by a sinister digger obsessed with uncovering skulls.

Juxtaposition is a preferred technique too. The seating plan for the Lord Mayor's banquet goes pear-shaped when Stephen Hawking is placed next to Shabba Ranks. The scientist, we are informed, apparently has an unlikely grudge against the reggae singer.

All of which might make this embryonic ensemble sound derivative, but they are clearly developing a distinctive rapidfire style of their own. They use space cleverly and employ ingenious audio effects. Some of their pieces lack a killer punchline and have to resort to surreal non-sequiturs as escape routes, but nothing really outstays its welcome.

Sketch shows often feel padded and desperate, as if the performers lack material and confidence and have opted for safety in numbers. Not here. The Dutch Elm Conservatoire has room for improvement, but there is a heady whiff of something stirring in SW11 over the next three Sundays.

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