• theatre
  • features
  • glimpses
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • glimpses
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

NZIF Presents: Improdome 

5/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Jessie Cooper

At 6:25pm last night, the doors opened to the start of the New Zealand Improv Festival season. Beginning the season was a new feature in their program ‘Improdome’, the battle royale of improv. The premise: across the space of an hour, four teams of four would battle it out in a series of challenges and games, in hopes of winning the audience’s affections and top marks, to win. ​
Kicking this off was the sincere and excited Jennifer O’Sullivan, an NZIF board member and fellow improv artist. There was barely need to warm up the crowd as the audience was already supportive with jeers and cheers, possibly egged on by a few beers. This response elicited an infectious energy from the performers as the four teams enter the stage. As each member introduced themselves, we are welcomed by a sea of different accents, with performers from all over New Zealand and across seas. These performers are lead by O’Sullivan and her charismatic co-host Matt Powell, who adjudicate the on-goings of the evening.

The night continued just as I’d hoped, with flurries of witticisms, self-aware jokes, ridiculous anecdotes and strange games that are all warmly welcomed by a supportive and engaged audience. One of the moments that exhibited such attributes came from the then ‘underdog’ team Griff-Raven-Hufflerin (my apologies if I’ve got this name confused, but can you blame me?) in a Christmas musical moment shared amongst a dysfunctional family. Jim Fishwick sung the entire scene, which was brilliantly aided by muso Isaac Thomas, cleverly following Fishwick’s cues on his guitar. The impressiveness of the scene helped boost the group into contention with the other teams, bringing us to a nail biting end to the evening.


The true talent of the performers came across in the moments of sincerity, which can be a rarity in improv theatre. Team JACKRABBIT presented a touching office love romance between Ryan Knighton and Christine Brooks that almost had me in tears of both happiness and laughter as they rewarded the audience with a kiss at the conclusion of the scene.

The NZIF have a high level of talent to pool from this year, with Improdome opening the season with a well deserved bang. Last night’s winners, team JACKRABBIT, will be back to perform in the next installment of Improdome tonight (Wednesday 5th of October) at 6:30pm and I highly recommend you go along to see them and all the new talents challenging them this evening.

The New Zealand Improv Festival runs from the 4th-8th of October at BATS theatre with Improdome performing on all nights at 6:30pm. Check out tickets below and make sure you get along to support and enjoy this awesome event!

https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/improdome/


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Storytelling
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights