Red Bus Londinium Life

Winner of the Molière Award for Best Comedy (2017), Bigre/ “FishBowl” comes to Sadler’s Wells as part of MimeLondon, the London International Mime Festival’s successor festival. A production by Pierre Guillois, co-written by Agathe L’Huillier and Olivier Martin-Salvan, the show arrives following a sold-out Edinburgh run in 2019 and subsequent international touring.

We are told that FishBowl is inspired by the infamous Parisian Théâtre du Grand-Guignol. That began as a theatre of realism, presenting short, one-act slice-of-life plays about ordinary Parisians, before later becoming notorious for its graphic horror, with productions driven by sensational violence, elaborate illusion and stories drawn from contemporary crime. FishBowl draws nothing from that later phase, instead aligning itself firmly with those earlier realist roots. The influence is felt through mime traditions shaped by exaggerated facial expression and posture, almost cartoon-level physical acting and a stylised realism pushed towards caricature.

Crucially, however, this is not mime in the purist sense. Pierre Guillois notes, “The characters are not mute; we simply see them at moments when they are not speaking, either because they are alone or because their difficulty in communicating prevents them from expressing even the simplest things, leading them to choose silence.” Speech and sound are present, but deployed selectively. Snatches of vocalisation, overheard noise and moments of verbal frustration puncture the physical language, while the use of karaoke is both very funny and unexpectedly revealing.

Promising Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton meeting Mr Bean, at its best FishBowl delivers precisely that. The exploration of small, routine encounters, moments misread, gestures reinterpreted, hope quietly fading into embarrassment, is a genuine triumph. The party scene, dense with lustful looks and longing glances, is the clear pinnacle. It is beautifully observed, sharply funny and uncomfortably recognisable. Here, physical comedy becomes social commentary.

The scenography, created by Construction Atelier Jipanco with the technical team at the Quartz, Scène nationale de Brest, is exceptionally clever. The set functions as both playground and pressure cooker, its intricate mechanisms and precise timing making the audience acutely aware of just how much could go wrong at any moment. That sense of risk only heightens the comedy. The special effects, by Abdul Alafrez, Ludovic Perché, Judith Dubois and Guillaume Junot, are deployed with extraordinary confidence. Much of it feels audacious to the point of recklessness, yet everything lands seamlessly, hilariously and with immaculate control.

Elsewhere, restraint can sometimes desert the piece. The toilet humour begins amusingly enough but continues past the point of necessity, lingering after the audience has already laughed, applauded and is emotionally ready to go home.

Still, the physical theatre of the three hapless neighbours remains extremely clever and well-observed. The matchbox conditions of living cheek by jowl, hearing too much, seeing too much and knowing far too much about those next door feels as familiar in London as it does in the Parisian setting of the piece. When FishBowl trusts this shared experience, the comedy acquires an added weight. The characters’ disappointments and small indignities register beneath the humour, as what can initially feel like a sequence of discrete vignettes gradually settles into a discernible narrative arc.

FishBowl will particularly appeal to audiences who enjoy intelligent physical comedy and sharply observed social satire. Those drawn to visual storytelling, precise ensemble work and humour rooted in everyday awkwardness rather than punchlines will find much to admire, especially when the production allows its finely tuned observation to do the work.

[Thank you to Sadler’s Wells who provided a gifted ticket in exchange for an honest review.]