5 - Stir-Fried Sketch Comedy
Paramount Theatre Foyer, Wellington
19/05/2009 - 23/05/2009
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
STICK FIVE PEOPLE INTO A BLENDER AND WHAT DO YOU GET?
Five comedic actors on the bubble, a boiling blender of script and stage – and a whole lotta trouble. That’s the premise of a unique and innovative evening of comedy featuring five mutli-talented stars of the Wellington performing arts scene. It’s a live-action creative process not seen before in Wellington: part-comedy, part-theatre, all sense-arousing sexually-fused fun.
Featuring established practitioners, who will explore different sides of their craft the show with each writing an original ten minute script. They will then act in one, two or all five to create a completely original and cooperative hour of devised comedy.
Actors will write, directors will act, writers will direct, and any combination thereof. Hilarity – and stupidity – will ensue with a show unlike any other seen before in Wellington.
So what to expect? It’s anyone’s guess…
Booking is essential as there is strictly limited seating!
Dates: Tuesday 19 – Saturday 23 May
Venue: Paramount Foyer
Tickets: $16/ $13
Bookings: 04 384 4080 www.paramount.co.nz
Email: puppysharktheatre@gmail.com
Website: www.myspace.com/puppysharktheatre
www.comedyfestival.co.nz/wellington/show/5
Prisoners
Written by: Simon Smith
Directed by: Dean Hewison
Cheesecake (the trilogy)
Directed by: Jessica Manins
Written by: Dean Hewison
Monkeys
Written by: Bex Joyce
Directed by: Simon Smith
Speed Dating
Written by: Jessica Manins
Directed by: Luke Hawker
Rats
Written by: Luke Hawker
Directed by: Bex Joyce
Stage Manager: Gemma Boyle
Costumes: Bex Joyce and the 5
Props/Set: Luke Hawker and the 5
Singing Coach: Gemma Boyle
Poster Design: Vanessa Smith
Music: Richard Falkner
Producers: Zelda Edwards & Simon Smith
1hr, no interval
Sketch stretch a romp
Review by John Smythe 20th May 2009
Five troupers, already known for certain skills – e.g. writing, acting, improvising, producing – now take on other roles as well, to co-create this amusing hour of sketch comedy. Each has written a piece and directed another and all play roles throughout.
As Luke Hawker, in cartoon prison garb, hangs from wall-mounted shackles, Dean Hewison kicks off, in his role as Scott, with creatively devised house-keeping announcements.
Simon Smith climbs in through a barred window to start the first sketch: Prisoners, written by himself and directed by Hewison. Jessica Mannins and Bex Joyce play tough-cookie prison guards. Well structured with good twists that distil the central premise, it reveals an unjust world of compulsive winners and losers.
Cheesecake (the trilogy), by Hewison and directed by Mannins, finds Hewison’s Scott behind the bar, dealing with a ‘fish-out-of-water’ youth (Hawker) whose great moment of fame was to be the kid in a K Fry TV ad. This will escalate dramatically, and comically, between the sketches that follow although its (lack of) resolution is a bit messy.
The Joyce-penned Monkeys, directed by Smith, takes what I take to be a live cam feed from backstage, using toys, cut-outs and models to create a zoo environment with which Hewison, on stage, interacts. Lots of fun with topical gags it becomes hijacked (intentionally) by deviation and falls apart, ending with a good visual twist.
Mannin’s Speed-Dating sketch, directed by Hawker and involving everyone in multiple fast-change roles, gets more and more bizarre, to the point where a rejected status quo looks attractive again.
Hawker’s Rats, a parody of Cats (although the tunes come from other musicals) features a mishmash of accents and looks either undercooked script-wise or under-rehearsed on opening night. But they bring it together for a big finish that provokes a healthy round of applause.
Overall the scripts fall short of capturing universal truths, exposing the human condition or leaving us with something to think about. It’s more an opportunity to watch five theatre enthusiasts stretching themselves and having a romp in the process.
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