Theatreview didn’t get to Season One but we did cover the opening episode of Season Two in last year’s Fringe. A rotating cast of 16 peopled the improvised hospital soap-opera then but the ‘Previously on Riddiford Street’ segment that opens Season Three reveals most of them died from some mysterious plague. So now a tight team of six plays 12 characters – with alacrity.

Pale hospital curtains adorn the stage, the branded reception desk hides the keyboard of musician and sound designer Amand Gerbault-Gaylor, and triples as the cafeteria counter and the inevitable bar. A list of ‘studio sets’ (the only pre-rehearsed element) is down-stage right and an audience ‘ask for’ determines this episode will commence in the Morgue.

The only other ‘ask for’ is “a scientific concept, like evolution” and the strong offer from up the back is “gravity”. And we’re off …

Beverly Wakenshaw (Jennifer O’Sullivan) is in charge of the Morgue, Trevor Duck (Sam Irwin) is the Orderly who wheels in the cadavers and his need for a shoulder massage escalates over the episode into a major plot thread – the Bev & Trev Back Rub Club: an excellent example of extracting the full potential from a random offer.

Bev sees big possibilities in the club but back rubs nearly do her in, thanks to a rare and hitherto undiagnosed condition. Trev, meanwhile, uses their achievement to campaign for a place on the DHB – presided over by the pompous Winthrop Bagneous (Jed Davies). It seems only we in the audience see Winthrop devour all the votes cast for Trev because in the ‘Next on Riddord Street’ preview it seems Trev has been elected – so they’re going to have to join those dots in Episode Two.

The gravity theme manifests as inexplicable occurrences (reported) of people jumping from high buildings and needing treatment for telescoped legs – but scenes set on the hospital Fire Escape never include anyone feeling the urge to jump. Due gravity arises in other scenes, however.

Exotically French Dr Olivier Duvet (Jonny Paul) is very grave, for example, in pursuing his surgery work as an artistic vocation. He is also misogynistic in his rejection of women surgeons – which demolishes the hitherto redoubtable South African Surgeon, Hester van Haagen-Dazs (O’Sullivan) – but only his French kiss-of-life brings Bev back from the brink.

Paul also plays Luke Patrick Longbow, a nurse, who gets the wrong idea about Surgical Intern Janet Jenkins (Caitlin McNaughton) thanks to their front-rubbing variation on back-rubs. Janet feels her emotions intensely and is in constant need of counselling from resident Psychologist Dr Phil Collins (Irwin).

Operations Manager Dr Theo Craker (Oliver Devlin) has intense feelings for the new Receptionist, Jeremiah (Davies), which are not reciprocated. Meanwhile the Managing Director, Veronica Volkswagen (McNaughton) is desperate to rekindle a social life in the bar despite the constantly inconvenient arrivals of her son Nick Sprogg (Devlin).

That’s my attempt to summarise most of the story content packed into this improvised and never-to-be-repeated one-hour episode. Its evolution is impressively seamless, despite a number of occasions early on when a duo’s attempt to set up a scene is interrupted and seemingly derailed by the insensitive arrival of a third player. Perhaps that is part of director Jonathan Price’s strategy to increase the risk factor and get the adrenaline pumping.

It is certainly a riveting experience and just as potentially addictive as any good soap-opera.

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