Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan: Talking to Strangers

If there's one thing that can hurt otherwise excellent comedy, it's stagnation. Too many comedians find their preferred level of strangeness, sardonicism, profanity or outrageousness, and stay there until the ambience of their material, however finely honed, has become stale. Talking to Strangers assures us that there is no danger of that happening with Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan. Repeatedly they display more variety than some comic performers do in an entire career.

A series of monologues described by their creators as "part theatre, part sketch show", Smack the Pony veteran Sally Phillips and actor/playwright Lily Bevan take turns in presenting a series of fascinating personalities that are either assailed by the world's eccentricites, or proud eccentrics themselves. 

Two in particular stand out, encapsulating the show's distinct virtues: Phillips embodies a friendly Swedish academic smugly at ease with her relaxed Nordic social democracy, baffled by the rest of the world's backwardness, and engaged in a strange marriage to a herring smoker. The sketch moves from relatability to political commentary, social satire to complete absurdity, and the transition is never less than smooth and natural.

Renconciling equally clashing vibes is the lone survivor of a cancer support group, who understandably tells us a darker tale – but until Bette Midler turns up, you won't begin to suspect just how dark, or weirdly hilarious.

There's more than humour and talent in Phillips and Bevan's portrayals, which are rich in comedic and artistic ambition; that it largely pays off is even more impressive. Talking to Strangers is a thoroughly fulfilling collaboration.