Serious about Comedy - University of Birmingham

Running from 2022 to 2025, Serious About Comedy was a Culture Forward-facilitated collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Rep Theatre.

Serious About Comedy was inspired by conversations between Sean Foley (2019-2024 Artistic Director, Birmingham Rep) and Professor Ewan Fernie (Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute and first Academic Lead for Culture Forward).

The project was delivered to question the boundaries between high and low art, explore what comedy is and how it works, and ask what forms it might take and how it might contribute to placemaking and cultural life, specifically in Birmingham. It drew in academics, theatre and filmmakers, comedians and stand-up comics, writers and directors in a search for the essence of comedy and its value in society.

Serious About Comedy launched on April Fool’s Day 2022 with a conference hosted at the Birmingham Rep that saw academics speaking on panels alongside stand-up comics, theatre practitioners and comedy performers, including Shazia Mirza, Sophia Ducker and Mrs Barbara Nice.

Photo of Shazia Mirza — Shazia Mirza, host of the 2022 conference by Andrew Smith/Fleeting Year Films

The project was captured in a documentary feature film, from BAFTA, Emmy and Grierson award-winning filmmakers Andrew Smith and Andy Jackson, which features stars of British comedy and performance from Al Murray and Frank Skinner to Adrian Lester and David Mitchell. It explores the Rep’s recent programme of comedy productions under Sean Foley’s artistic direction, including Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image the Musical (2023) and Withnail and I (2024), alongside a search for the essence of comedy and its value in society.

The Serious About Comedy documentary received its world premiere at the inaugural Rik Mayall Comedy Festival, held from 31 May to 7 June in Droitwich Spa. The screening took place at the Norbury Theatre and was followed by a panel discussion, featuring some of the key creatives behind the project: Professor Ewan Fernie; double Olivier Award-winner Sean Foley; and Iqbal Khan, theatre director, Associate Director at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Associate Artist of the Box Clever Theatre Company, and director of the opening ceremonies for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.