On Saturday 20 April, St Kilda’s majestic National Theatre was transformed into a ‘Colosseum of Creativity’ for a night of unscripted, flying by the seat of your pants entertainment. Four teams – The Fromage Retardants, Me Me Me, Cut Snake and Black Caviar – had five timed, competitive rounds in which to score the most points from the judges and win the coveted Theatresports Trophy. Teams scored 0-5 for each performance.
The Judges were Emilie Collyer (writer/performer), Mimeon Carville (Impro Melbourne) and Patrick Duffy (National Theatresports Champion 2011). Patrick played the role of the ‘hanging judge’, complete with devil’s horns, and was regularly booed for his mean-spiritedness in his scoring (although he wasn’t all bad – he was regularly seen handing out spare lollies to the children sitting behind him).
The cast had a mix of stars from Australian screens, seasoned theatresports performers, and Canadian improviser Patti Stiles, with Master of Ceremonies Simon Dowling, wearing a sparkling black and gold jacket, keeping things moving. Musician Gordon Dorin performed fabulously on the Roland keyboard, entertaining the audience between skits and actively improvising along with the players. Time keeper Jeremy kept everyone on track, props girls assisted with costumes and props, and the lighting was effective in adding to the performances.
Round one was ‘teams choice’ and started off well with the Fromage Retardants serenading Harley, a hapless audience member. Virginia Gay (All Saints, Winners and Losers) was a sparky performer and ably displayed both her singing chops and comedic improvisation abilities. The end of round one saw Cut Snake in front with a hilarious foreign film scene and the audience baying for the hand-thrown lollies that they knew were coming.
Round two was the only round in which the teams did not choose their scene – teams drew one of four categories (‘world’s worst’, ‘mime’, ‘classic death’ and ‘word at a time’) from a hat. The end of this round saw the Fromage Retardants and Black Caviar sharing first place. Round three was won hands down by Me Me Me with Geoff Paine (Blue Heelers, Neighbours, A Country Practice) hilarious bursting into spontaneous musical numbers during his teammates’ serious conversations.
Rounds four and five followed after interval, beginning with Simon Dowling leading an audience sing-a-long. In round five, Rik Brown (a previous National Theatresports Champion) took a risk choosing a four way dub skit, doing all the voices for his team, which paid off with Cut Snake winning the trophy on 50 points at the final count.
Patrick Duffy gave the ‘Moment of the Match’ award to the line ‘I wish I was in New Zealand,’ said by Lliam Amor (Underbelly, The Micallef Program, Thank God You’re Here) in a hilarious split category involving an understudy replacement in a scene played out twice – in the second version it became two men getting married.
Celebrity Theatresports was a fabulous night out, and there’s more theatresports fun to come in Melbourne this year. Impro Melbourne starts its 2013 season on Sunday 12 May (Mother’s Day – all mums get free entry) at The Space in Prahran, with the grand final at the National Theatre on Sunday 13 July.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Celebrity Theatresports
National Theatre, St Kilda
20 April
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
27 March – 21 April
