The Fast Show last night was a lot of fun, but oh boy was this the reunion I was properly excited for. Drop The Dead Donkey was one of my favourite sitcomes when I was younger, spending weeks binging it on 4oD (as it was at the time), and to see a new stage play written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, with all of the surviving original cast - yes bloody please. I’ve been waiting forever.
I’m going to cut to the chase, it for the most part did not disappoint and I was so happy. It’s genuinely impressive to see the cast, especially Neil Pearson immediately slip back into character, 25 odd years later, as if nothing had happened. Similarly for the writing, of course - Gus’s middle management jargon continues to baffle and delight in equal measures, and the characterisation across the board remains spot on.
The modernisation broadly works, if occasionally prompting braying laughter from the audience of, as Stewart Lee would put it, agreeing the fuck out of it. But obviously this is a very middle class evening, so what more could I expect.
But! They’re still having a lot of fun with the topical jokes, clearly having carved out spaces for easily updated lines. Bet the cast are still annoyed by having to keep learning the new stuff.
Overall, though, the whole thing just made me really happy. It’s not that it’s enough for a reunion like this to be nostalgia - of course it has to justify itself, still be funny, competently put together, sincere, which The Reawakening is - but it felt like a dip into a warm bath and, y’know, it can be both.