LYALL BAYWATCH
Gryphon Theatre, 22 Ghuznee Street, Wellington
27/02/2016 - 27/02/2016
NZ Fringe Festival 2016 [reviewing supported by WCC]
Production Details
Hot Sand. Dirty Secrets. A Beachy Soap Opera Unfolding Hour by Hour.
From the people who brought you the lives and times of Sweet Aro Valley High in 13: The Soap (nominated Best Improv, Fringe 2015) comes a new, sexy, sun-tanned story. Join Kickin’ Rad at Fringe at the Gryphon for Lyall Baywatch – a ten episode epic soap opera featuring the hunkiest honeys this side of Wellington Harbour. Lifeguards, surfers, dog walkers: they’ll keep you safe on their shores or they’ll die trying.
Kicking off at 1pm with shows every hour on the hour, Lyall Baywatch will see some of Wellington’s top improvisors push their comedy chops to the limit as they create and inhabit characters inspired by the combination of Baywatch babes and Lyall Bay locals for 10 hours straight. Every storyline, saga and episodic climax will be completely improvised – anything could happen (and probably will).
“It’s always delightful to put a Kiwi spin on familiar works,” says director Jennifer O’Sullivan. “I can’t be the only one who watches movies and TV shows and thinks, what if this were in New Zealand? What if Mitch Buchannon was a good kiwi bloke? What if Pamela Anderson was a friendly girl from Palmerston North? What if those swimmers had to deal with the tumultuous Wellington weather?”
Lyall Baywatch is directed by Jennifer O’Sullivan and stars hilarious improvisors with far-too-fond memories of David Hasslehoff’s red beach shorts. Come for one episode or stay all day and work on your theatre tan.
Starring: Jed Davies, Oliver Devlin, Lyndon Hood, Sam Irwin, Lori Leigh, Jennifer O’Sullivan, Jonny Paul, Matt Powell, Dianne Pulham, Wiremu Tuhiwai, Katie Wilson, Steven Youngblood and more of Wellington’s best loved improvisors
Kickin’ Rad is a Wellington-based production company with a bent towards shows with heart and hilarity, led by Jennifer O’Sullivan. We present original work, executive produce smaller works, and assist with touring performers from outside of Wellington and New Zealand.
LYALL BAYWATCH – WELLINGTON
Venue: Fringe at the Gryphon, 22 Ghuznee St
Date: 1pm – 11pm, Saturday 27 February (Shows every hour on the hour)
Tickets: $10 per episode or $20 stay as long as you like
Bookings: Door sales only – more information at www.fringe.co.nz
Theatre , Improv ,
Skilful, dry and well timed
Review by Joana Simmons 28th Feb 2016
10 hours. 14 players. Countless moments of improvisational gold.
Kickin Rad’ (13: The Soap – nominated best Improv, Fringe 2015) brings us Lyall Baywatch, a multi episode soap opera that dives into the dramatic lives and times of the citizens of Lyall Bay and those who guard it’s precious shores.
Kicking off episode one with a voice-over – “Previously, on last season of Lyall Baywatch” – followed by a character with no hand, dramatic one liners and plenty of mystified looks into the distance, I know I’m going to have a whale of a time.
Episode one starts slow, establishing characters, taking us through the clubrooms, café/cocktail bar and beach of Lyall Bay. From divorcees with diplomatic and dark pasts to Lifeguards who make muffins for the team out of a kind gesture but can’t eat them till after their shift, because if they did they’d have to wait an hour before swimming, to the sensuous Miss Lyall Bay, on a mission to heal from the inside, each character establishes their relationships to the bay and the other players.
Improvisation is made interesting through relationships. Sure, doing and saying witty things is great, but it’s the relationships we get the most invested in (otherwise Big Brother wouldn’t be so popular). The intuitive improvisers know this, not spending too much time in a scene, leaving the stage if they’re not needed, or doing a dramatic stare into the distance to let the lights dissolve out and in to another moment in time in Lyall Bay.
Cut to the voice-over “and that was episode one of Lyall Baywatch. Coming up on next episode …” and characters walk in and make the offers of high stakes, dramatic plot teasers and twists like the tentacles of a giant squid.
By the cliffhanger ending of episode two, I’m hooked. The plot is too thick to describe; metaphors are now as deep as the ocean they are protecting. The 4 episodes I see each increase in depth and tension, and having to go to the foyer in between episodes feels like the buffering symbol on a Breaking Bad binge.
The music – keyboard, cajon and guitar – adds ambience and brings some lovely moments to the story, such as when Keith Grant (Steven Youngblood) is instructed by the voice-over to sing about how happy he is, supported by backing vocals offstage, or when Lake Brooks (Jennifer O’Sullivan) plays the guitar from the lifeguard deck. The lighting adds to this, focusing and shifting our attention more or less seamlessly.
Kickin’ Rad and this group of Wellington improvisers use an array of conventions to keep the story moving, including film noir commentary, picking up each other’s lines from one scene to another, tirelessly listening from offstage to bring up themes and ideas from hours ago and weaving them into the story … Skilful, dry and well timed.
There are many things I will learn from Lyall Baywatch, about starting fresh, finding yourself, how not to do CPR with one arm, that muffins are like the advice you give to children and you need balance. My favourite lesson, though, is from Mrs Robinson (Clare Kerrison): “Love is worth pissing yourself for.”
Can’t wait to sink my teeth into next season, buoy, it’s going to be good!
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