When Booty Calls is a delightfully queer triumph, a melodramatic pirate drama, and I absolutely loved it.  

From opening to close this show zings along with great joy and ludicrous comedic moments. Our two heroines are Jen (Phoebe Caldeiro) and Liz (Nina Hogg), a duo grappling with swords, treasure and their “unrequited love” for each other. 

When their Captain (Troy Etherington) catches them going through his belongings, he captures them, and his First Mate Peggy (Ella Wells) threatens to kill them. However, they manage to convince Peggy to liberate herself – while liberating them from their ropes – and she soon becomes an antagonist in her own right, forcing Jen and Liz to confront their feelings for each other by the end of the show.

Rom-com tropes! Homoerotic sword fight/dancing! Utter filth! Unbelievably horny! This show has everything and is truly a revelation of genre, combining meta commentary, action-comedy and some good old fashioned romance.

I’d love to make note of the phenomenal fight choreography (choreo: Nina Hogg, coach: Carrie Thiel), some of the best I’ve ever seen in theatre and certainly the strongest I’ve watched live. From swords, to fists, to gymnastics and rope tricks, the action is adept and clever, and lends itself to the narrative well. Believe me, there’s a reason there are gym mats included as a part of the set design.

Nina Hogg as Liz provides a brash but vulnerable foil to Phoebe Caldeiro’s more sincere Jen. Hogg and Caldeiro have excellent chemistry and the rapport is strong between them, lifting the action from the somewhat-cliched (not in a bad way!) narrative beneath. Both actors have a delightful chaos to them, joyous control over their performance and a charisma that lends itself very well to the frequent moments when this show breaks the fourth wall.

Ella Wells’ Peggy is oddly sympathetic for most of the piece, a clear send to the much besieged first mate in pirate stories of yore, while Troy Etherington provides another layer of chaos to the show with his performance as the Captain, powerful and frightening, but also kind of unhinged.

I adore shows that go beyond the bounds of traditional comedy in their creation, and find hilarity in the most wild of places. This show is a fantastic example of that – there are near constant gags, from sound effects, to visual, to audio – but the narrative does find moments of pause for little pieces of sincerity. It’s a balance that works very well, especially as, in the end, it’s telling a love story.

This is a gorgeous work and I am immensely jealous of everyone who is a part of it. Tonight, my queer heart is very, very pleased.

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Comedy Gold is a company comprising graduates of Victoria University’s Theatre Studies programme. While I am not sure this is what the programme tutors had in mind for their students, I for one think Comedy Gold does them proud.  

The Dome space at BATS is wide and shallow, which as it turns out makes it a wonderful space for stage fighting. Fully fitted out with impact mats, the stage is soon full of many pirates flinging each other about, landing punches and generally fighting with great finesse and credibility. My curiosity is up, but my hopes are wary, as this is clearly a devised show, and the D word and I have history.  

But lo, it has directors! Who also perform the lesser parts! And a plot! And music that is original and funny and good! And tight staging! I am beginning to sense that this show may actually be a chest of not really buried treasure.

And what a haul. A pirate, slap stick, action, quest, queer, romantic, comedy feast, this show defies genre rules to bring us the best of them all.

Nina Hogg’s Liz and Phoebe Caldeiro’s Jen don’t really enjoy the pirate lifestyle and decide to jump ship. This sets off a chain of events that it would be a spoiler to recount here. They fight with fists, feet, and swords – they sing, they dance, they reference the show and they deliver lots of laughter. Borne along on their infectious energy, the audience is in the palm of their hands. Hoggs is the fight choreographer and Caldeiro the musical composer so they really bring their chops to this show.

Liz is an insecure braggard with trust issues. Jen is a gentle and idealistic underdog. A classic odd couple, they literally and verbally spar and dance and are absolutely wonderful. What a very untechnical term wonderful is. Yet that is what they are. Every move is placed, every word lands – the skill underlying the froth is as palpable as rippling muscle under skin.

And so to the other odd couple of the piece – Tom Aitcheson’s pirate Captain (also co-director) and Ella Wells’ first mate Peggy. Milking the physical comedy to the max, these two are a delight. No murder plot is too gleefully, confusingly elaborate. Their fate is an important plot twist and again, I’ll leave that for those who go to watch.

And I cannot leave out Troy Etherington, also co-director, who plays several smaller parts and brings it to the stage as well. The co-direction team do this show proud.

Also a heads up for Tabitha Rowell who created the delightfully batty ‘seenography’ (her word!) and lit it too.

Word in the foyer is that due to L2, they had less time to pack in and only got to rehearse on the set the same day. You’d never know.

A fun romp to warm your cockles, I ARRRR-tily recommend When Booty Calls as a great night out that will leave you feeling that the future of New Zealand theatre is in excellent hands.

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