Romesh Ranganathan and Suzi Ruffell at The Lowry Review
Romesh Ranganathan and Suzi Ruffell
The Lowry, Manchester
7 March 2015
Reviewed by Cathy Porteus
I hadn’t seen Suzi Ruffell before but I enjoyed her performance. Her humour was based on her life, relationships and shopping habits. I was particularly entertained by her tale of adolescent ventures to the only rap nightclub in Portsmouth, and could identify with her chagrin at being ejected before Craig David allegedly arrived to do an impromptu set.
Romesh Ranganathan was more familiar to us from various appearances on panel shows on TV. A grumpy young man, Romesh’s stories of modern family life were amusing and relatable for most of us. He said that he found us a tough crowd, and pretended to go off in a huff when the biggest laughs and applause were reserved for occasional pieces of wit from the audience. He shared his frustration with the challenges of parenting; not least the resentment stemming from his son’s eating his expensive imported Fruit Loops without concern for their cost. I think many parents could identify with his struggle to keep calm and patient when teaching his eldest child how to read.
A particularly funny moment came perhaps inadvertently, when after Romesh had ranted about how much he disliked drama teachers, an audience member revealed that she was indeed a drama teacher herself. Romesh’s seeming awkwardness with this tricky moment made us all laugh along with schadenfreude.
Unfortunately I find the Studio at the Lowry not as good a venue as their main theatres. Being several flights of stairs away from the nearest facilities, there is barely time to make your way down to the ground floor to buy a drink before it is time to return to the show. The seats are also rather worn and close together, the constant uncomfortable shifting of other audience members made it difficult to relax and enjoy the comedy.
Overall I had a fun night out and would recommend Romesh and Suzi’s show to any adults who like straightforward comedy based on the frustrations of everyday life. I would not recommend anyone brings their children along, as one parent did. The child’s presence on the front row made both comedians visibly uncomfortable when doing adult humour with some sexual references. I felt that the venue was at fault in some ways for allowing a child in to what was clearly an adult show, no matter how many warnings they gave to the child’s parent, it affected other people’s evenings adversely.
Rating: 4.5/5
For more information, tour dates or to book tickets visit www.romeshranganathan.co.uk.
For other shows at The Lowry visit www.thelowry.com.
The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 3AZ | 0843 208 6000
