Lucky Tonight!
★★★☆☆ Competitive fun
Traverse (Venue 15): Thurs 31 Jul – Sun 24 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Lucky Tonight! at the Traverse is part play, part quiz, and while one part is more successful than the other, it is undoubtedly great fun.
Written and performed by Afreena Islam-Wright, this is billed as an ‘interactive pub quiz-cum-theatre show’, with the theatre element being based around Islam-Wright’s own story growing up in a family of Bangladeshi heritage in Greater Manchester.
Afreena Islam-Wright in Lucky Tonight! at the HOME Arches Opening. Pic: Home.
The first thing that has to be said is that this is that rare thing – a theatrical performance featuring a quiz where said quiz really does work. Such hybrids tend to have questions that are more of an afterthought, and where not enough attention has been paid to how it is going to pan out.
Here, we have a proper pub quiz, with the audience in teams, using tablets to answer rounds (usually speed-based) on a variety of topics, some of them ingeniously linked to the other content. It is all easy enough to navigate once you get started, and even the most apparently uncompetitive are soon involved.
there are actual prizes!
The questions are tricky enough to interest without being outrageously niche; the standard must be about right, as empirical evidence on this occasion suggests that the best team is bound to win. Plus, there are actual prizes!
The bits in between the quiz, while well enough done, do not convince quite as much. The tales of growing up between two cultures, family, relationships, teenage rebellion and racism are well enough thought out. However, Islam-Wright’s persona – so confidently chatty and occasionally biting when behind the quiz desk – does not work as well when out from behind it.
Lucky Tonight! at the HOME Arches Opening. Pic: Home.
The fun and engagement of the quiz sections are dissipated, and the impact of the personal story (considerable though this is at times) never quite compensates. There are too many moments when she seems unsure of where the narrative is going next, which just reinforces that the piece lacks a real overarching structure. Instead, it comes across more as a series of anecdotes, performed in an acting area that has too many distracting and unnecessary props.
The direction of Julia Samuels does give the whole thing cohesion, but it starts to seem too long and could do with considerable tightening up.
In the end, however, this can be heartily recommended for anyone looking for an evening’s entertainment (unlike many Traverse Fringe shows, this is always on late) with a proper quiz.
Running time: One hour and 30 Minutes (no interval).
Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2), 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED. (Venue 15).
Thursday 31 July – Sunday 24 August 2025.
Daily: 9pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on the Traverse Website.
ENDS
