Canada is an invention. The material is every bit as ambitious as the blurb promises, comprising an hour-long study in the ways of making people laugh. Though top-class writing was occasionally lacking, top-class ideas and direction were there in abundance.

A number of recurring sketches hold the show together, but the show as a whole was not hamstrung by a tenuous overarching connection. In every case, the variations were creative enough departures from the theme to avoid being repetitious. Most ingenious were the methods of audience participation, both inclusive and exclusive, which made the evening even more interesting for some people in the front row.

There wasn’t much buzz about this show when it previewed at the end of last term, and a lot seems to have changed since then. The two-and-a-half star Varsity review remarked that the show “focused too much on ideas, and forgot about execution.” This may not have made for the most satisfying hour spent in May Week, but ideas are precisely what a show needs when it is in its experimental stage before a three-and-a-half month international tour. A good number of the sketches in the June run have not made it to the end of the tour (though Emma Sidi still dresses up as a spider). The show has moved on from 'awkward' and is now even devoid of direct references to Canada.

I have previously criticised Matilda Wnek’s stand-up for being too clever for its own good, and the Bailey-Bradley duo for being crap. But their cleverness and wackiness, combined with the class acting, zany miming, amusing awkwardness and subtle poise of Emma Sidi, Rosa Robson, Ryan O’Sullivan and Celine Lowenthal respectively made for an hour of truly original entertainment last night. When they collaborate en masse, and their ideas are given time to mature outside the hectic Cambridge term and bi-weekly Smoker cycle, this crop of Footlights is really rather good.

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