I am escorted by a lovely lady to the lifts of this quirky space (two/fiftyseven on Willis Street). The theatre space upstairs is a very brightly lit room with writing on the whiteboard, and it’s full of people who are here to have fun! 

We’ve shown up to a school reunion! Huia High’s class of 2000 has reunited to reminisce and bring us news. A lot can happen in 20 years, and the performers of Peaked in High School Productions have brought us together to find out what – all through the power of improv.

As the show starts the improvisers ask the audience for suggestions to be used in the show: questions like, “what do American schools have that we don’t?” and ”’what subject should schools have that they don’t?” to which the audience swiftly replies “school shootings”  and “crochet”. The artists shut down the school shooting suggestion but the audience for this show has shown up to be entertained, and the show does not disappoint. An added element is the use of time capsules, which can be opened by the characters from their 20-year-ago selves. 

Moving into the first moments, I’m not sure what we’re looking at, until a performer breaks the ice saying that they’re in a queue to enter the High School Reunion. At the kiosk we meet Mr Robinson (Campbell Wright) who interacts with each performer as they go in – with a very Muppet-like voice. He changes character many times – is he a woman? Is he a rabbit eating filo pastry? No. He is Mr. Robinson.

The first scene is (predictably) old lovers meeting up at the reunion after years. Awkward energy, no one knows what to say… You get the picture. But in a heartbeat it turns dark! A callback joke to the ‘school shooting’ joke is made and the audience roars with laughter.

The second scene is between a plumber (Hugo Beale) who plays the bagpipes and his ex love (Simran Rughani). The sound effects for this scene are made entirely by another improviser’s voice – including bagpipes that sounds like the noises babies make. Isaac Thomas is the muso, on guitar.

Coming back to the audience suggestions, the next scene is the crochet class! In this they struggle to crochet, maintaining excellent characterisation across the entire scene despite the easy-to-break hilarious subject matter. Most notably, Austin Harrison plays a mid-40s man with the tenuous vocab of a Gen Z-er, who always has new slang in his back pocket.

Processing through the former students catching up, the show quickly descends towards the surreal, as the students discover that the school a) has a werewolf, and b) it is Mr Robinson. A student (Millie Osborne) who was bored and quirky has decided to turn Mr Robinson into a werewolf. Encouraged to be herself, she has pursued a future in making werewolf potions – and we learn she’s hidden the werewolf potion in her time capsule! With an intervention from her plumber friend, she promises not to turn more people into werewolves and in turn she finds love with him. It is clear opening night anxiety plays a hand in the proceedings, but the improvisers bring the energy and their confidence grows across the show, with the crowd buzzing amongst themselves as they leave. An hilarious and skilled night of improv!

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