Venue: Arts Club Revue Stage
Date(s): Fridays and Saturdays 10:45 pm, ongoing
Reviewer: Christine Dahlo
Going to theatresports is an iffy business. It's
either tears in my eyes funny or blank stare groan. The beauty of it
is, that's the way it's supposed to be because it's all made up on the
spot with audience suggestions. User-interactive, competitive and
improvisational.
We went to the Friday night 10:45 show, the straight-ahead
theatresports theme. However, I don't know if it could really be
called theatresports since they were not playing any actual
theatresports games such as story die, typewriter, alphabet, styles,
four on the floor, experts (the hands behind the back thing). They
simply had cards for a suggestion from the audience, such as "an
uncomfortable situation". The suggestion? A blind date.
Which brings me to my second gripe: they tended to take the easy
suggestions. Not that the audience down at Granville Island offered
up much that didn't lead to simple minded sexual innuendoes on stage.
My sister, as a judge, was roundly booed, for giving a low score to a
scene that started off with kids sneaking up on their parents having
sex, and ended with one of the kids wanting to have sex with mom.
Ha ha! (Actually the audience ate this one up).
I give full respect to the actors for their on-the-spot imaginations
and the occasional brilliance they create out of nothing.
Unfortunately, the scenes were mostly lost without the shaping given by
a real challenge of a theatresports game. I applaud the performers
efforts with what they were given, but on the part of the audience,
what they were given seldom went beyond the obvious.
For my $14.50, I wanted something fresher.
© 2001, Christine Dahlo