For an improv show there is something odd about the way Ramshackle and Kitsch is set-up, pre show. Shane Adamczak slips into the Heyday Dome space and chats quietly to selected couples. Seated centrally I try to eavesdrop then ask the chosen to confirm what he has asked-for and written in slips of paper:
Somewhere good to retire: The South of France
An unconventional crime: Voting for Trump
An interesting object: A crystal ball.

Shane then leaves and – apart from musician Liam Kelly and lighting operator Darryn Woods who are already in place – it’s some time before he returns with the rest of the Variegated Productions troupe from Western Australia: St John Cowcher, Libby Klysz and Brianna Williams – plus locally-sourced guest performer Jennifer O’Sullivan.

In a single spotlight, redolent of early James Bond opening credits, to a lively rendition of the Mission Impossible theme, each troupe member poses a trope of the genre, mostly involving gun-toting. This suggests a spy thriller is in the offing, although Ramshackle and Kitch has been pitched as “The lovechild of Starsky & Hutch and The Mighty Boosh”: a buddy detective series and a surreal comedy series, respectively.

The opening scene sets up Klyz as Detective Ramshackle in retirement – and she takes a folded piece of paper from her pocket to discover she’s in the South of France. The crime of voting for Trump and the crystal ball are similarly discovered mid-scenes.

Now I know the audience needs to trust improvisers not to cheat – because why would they: they’re improvisers – but not including the whole audience in the ask-for process and not ensuring we see those folded bits of paper remain in the room then handed to the arriving players and slipped into their pockets with no-one peeking, robs the audience of a crucial entertainment factor.

It becomes apparent the casting, key characterisations and plot structure are predetermined. Fair enough. Ramshackle is an old-school Cockney cop and bored in retirement; her broad-Australian ex-boss (Brianna Williams) calls her back into service to solve the crime; she is highly resentful of being teamed up with rookie cop Kitch (Jennifer O’Sullivan); St John Cowcher and Shane Adamczak are assigned the criminal roles – and everyone pitches in with bit-parts as and when required.  

For some reason, despite the crime, they set the story in Wellington, I’m guessing because they have decided in advance to crack jokes about NZ being governed from a Beehive. They do acknowledge it is odd that a US Elections voting scam has been master-minded in New Zealand but rather than validate the offered premise in terms of topical global politics they decide the evil plan to install the Great Orange in the Whitehouse has been the work of The Feline Gambling Ring. This is the surreal Mighty Boosh dimension, I guess. (In the TV series each episode invariably starts and ends in a dilapidated zoo, the ‘Zooniverse’, so I’m guessing they are committed to referencing that regardless of the crime-de-jour.)

Thus we get gambling scenes, missing boxes of votes and a memorable interrogation of Sean Squirrel (Adamczak), where R & K call in the unseen but nevertheless formidable Boris (voiced on mic by Williams). She has also played the Boss on mic, suggesting that too is predetermined.

Quite how the crystal ball’s furry interior helps to bring the perpetrators to justice is unclear. Indeed the showdown scenes at Auckland’s Sky City Casino seems fudge in favour of emphasising Ramshackle’s acceptance of Kitch as a valuable partner and the reward of cocaine – resolving a plot thread that suggests Ramshackle was retired because of a cocaine habit and/or the Force routinely uses confiscated cocaine to reward good service. I suspect this too is a predetermined element because it has not seemed to evolve naturally through the improv process.

From an audience perspective I feel that, despite the good characterisations and odd flash of inspired performance, we have witnessed a bit of a muddle where spontaneity has not been able to gain traction and flow freely. This may be because pre-conceived elements have constrained them and/or they haven’t quite come to grips with this particular asked-for crime in a way that makes its solving the major focus of the action, thereby producing an audience-pleasing climax and resolution.

That said, it is clear that everyone is a skilled performer and improv artist so there is every reason to suppose that the next three episodes of Ramshackle and Kitch will fly. 

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