This Review is from August 2026

Talking to folks in the queue, I learn that a good two thirds of tonight’s audience are locals who belong to the same tennis club. “It’s a show about tennis.” I wondered how they would take to this clowning show.

Tennish is an amalgam of audience interactive games, based loosely of the theme of tennis. There’s quite a lot of throwing plastic balls about. A mechanical toy dog, apparently called Flippy, appears in-between games as the performer attempts to make it perform tricks.

Ostensively about ambition and competition, Tennish provides the audience with an excuse to play. Whilst the adult me was searching for an artistic narrative arc, which was not there, the child me absolutely loved it. The quiet reviewer who hides at the back actually wanted to join in. Our local tennis players had a ball.

Martin Walker