On the night I saw it, improvisers Brendan Bennetts, Daniel Pengelly, Emma Brittenden and Hamish Parkinson took the appreciative audience on a rollercoaster of a journey from the sedateness of Jane Austen to the terrifying future visions of an audience member’s life as a rural doctor and part time pig slaughterer.

The format, which involves directors competing for ‘Oscars’, is well explained at the beginning and empowers the audience to play up the rivalry between the competitors. Each player has to direct a number of scenes during the show whose collective duration is no more than 15 minutes, using the other three performers as their cast, while selected audience members acting as time keepers are given stopwatches to visibly keep the directors honest.

This ingenious utilisation of the ‘side coach’ role is subtlety immersed in the structure of the Oscars event so it doesn’t come across as an apology, but gives the players a safety net to keep the pacing and content tight and diverse. The director of a scene is judged by the scientific method of the audience yelling either “Oscar” or “forfeit” depending upon whether or not a performance deserves praise. This provides a fine ruse of fierce competition while rewarding (or punishing) the usually least involved performer in the scene, which is a perfect synthesis of Keith Johnstone’s teachings to “make your partner look good”.

The energetic performers accepted the audience praise with delight (sometimes coy bashfulness) and took their punishment from a “forfeit” with good humour and the occasional comedic half hearted complaint. In short, they endeared themselves to us immensely. Some of the punishments which particularly resonated with the audience were Daniel enduring a “spank tunnel” and Hamish making an onstage call to the Court Jester’s manager to grovel and apologise for presenting a poor scene.