The good thing about going to see a show that’s being written during performance is, as the MC Dan Pengelly kindly points out, if it’s crap, you never have to see it again.

Pengelly deftly coordinates and riles up both the audience and his two theatre sports teams, comprised this evening of James Cain, Calvin Petersen and Nathaniel Herz-Erdinger as the ‘blue team’ and Lori Leigh and Sam Phillips as the ‘red team’. In fact, he riles everyone up so much I begin to wonder if he’s in a really bad mood or there are some off-stage enmities being played out on stage, but I am later assured that everyone in PlayShop is the best of friends and it’s the warmest and friendliest theatre company you could ever be a part of with no internal pettinesses or rivalries at all.

PlayShop is a significantly large troupe and the combination of players will vary from night to night. Tonight, Robbie Ellis provided the charming and witty incidental music.

The house is packed and I don’t think that’s entirely due to the fact that a bunch of theatre-crazed students are in town this weekend for Shakespeare Globe centre NZ’s Sheilah Winn Shakespeare In Schools national finals – the show has sold out before. Advance bookings are highly recommended, and apparently liking them on the internet can get you a discount. You don’t even have to like them in real life!

Tragically this evening (for me and possibly the actors; not so tragic for much of the crowd), the jokes take a plunge into the depths and we spend a lot of time delving into graves and cisterns which is not for the squeamish, unless of course you enjoy feeling squeamish, which some people seem to. The audience is certainly to blame for at least three quarters of this mess and the actors rise admirably to every ball the bawdy bard-lovers throw their way. We are greeted on the way out with heart-felt handshakes and sincere apologies for some of the content.

So while Pengelly is right about never having to see it again if it’s crap, at a show like this, if it’s crap it’s also partially (mostly) your fault, audience! But it’s the late show so you’re probably all a little drunk anyway, and this highly skilled and seasoned collection of performers can turn even your crappest crap into something worth watching.

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