The Hall Monitors Present: Time Out

Austin Harrison

The Hall Monitors Present: Time Out is a one-hour improvised performance loosely inspired by The Breakfast Club and set in the detention room of a 1980s high school. It’s not Theatresports™. It’s not your whacky “short-form” improv. It’s a real-time, one-act show about real people, that just happens to be made up on the spot.

I’m always interested in this kind of show because it’s hard. As improvisers, we know how to play games and create comedy through the absurd. That’s usually just how we are anyway, which is why we get into improv, but this kind of real-prov is difficult, so it’s always a treat to see a new(ish) company giving it a whirl. 

Firstly, let’s talk about “format”. For those fortunate enough to have brains not full of improv lingo, the format of an improv show is the structure of the show – more or less the things that you know are going to happen, around which the show is improvised. I reckon they’ve nailed this bit of making a show. The MC for the evening is Coach Murray (Aaron Douglas). Coach walks onto stage and speaks to us, a bit like a school assembly going over the necessary admin before the show. He explains that we’re about to go into the detention room where some students have been given “time out” (it’s the name of the show!) and gets suggestions from the audience about why these characters have ended up here after class. 

Douglas plays the part of a fed-up PE teacher incredibly well and holds the audience comfortably. We are told several times to “settle down” and “ssshhh now”, which tells us this is not the kind of improv show with heavy audience interaction. There is a fourth wall unless otherwise specified and we should respect it. Coach Murray then exits, and the players for tonight’s show enter one by one and start to slowly establish relationships and characters. After a few minutes, Coach re-enters the room and gives each of them one of the audience suggestions gathered earlier on a piece of paper to inspire their character. From there the show is free to roam wherever it pleases, and the format has provided everything it needs. We know the rules, we know the premise and we can settle in for 45 minutes of lovely improvised play. NICE!

The next section of the show is all about character. Tonight we have Bronxy the sweatpants wearing trouble-maker (Liz Butler), Sarah the well-mannered and mildly flirtatious cool-girl (Amerlia Cartwright), Montgomery the Bologna-eating loner (Ben Jardine) and Jacob – pronounced “Yacob” – the new German exchange student (Max Porozny). It is clear that these characters are not predetermined and we thoroughly enjoy discovering who they are alongside the performers. When Porozny first speaks in a German accent everyone lets out a giggle as though to say, “Bold choice, you have to do this for an hour”. When we eventually discover Jardine’s character is called Montgomery, we laugh in joyous recognition. He is such a “Montgomery”! This character work is the highlight of the show. The Hall Monitors are adept improvisers and bounce off each other with ease and delight. 

The final action of the show is mostly based around relationships. There is a push from the cast to create small tensions between characters and then have them resolved by the end of the show. This is great fodder for entertainment, and with such fabulous character work forming the basis for relationships to build, I think this is the biggest area I encourage the Hall Monitors to reflect on. While there is some action in this area with the crew forming a new ABBA fan club together and some brief tension over a pocket square, the team never quite finds a third or fourth gear. 

Make no mistake, the audience are engaged and enjoying the play for all 60 minutes, but the high school setting allows for so much more. In high school, everything is high stakes. EVERYTHING! The canteen ran out of sour lollies. That’s the end of the world and the canteen lady is the devil. Your friend didn’t mention your new haircut...no longer friends, sorry buddy. This is the kind of high-stakes interplay that is rife for exploration in this show, but the cast seem a little timid to really dive in and build tension. Perhaps it’s because they are all real-life friends who don’t want to be “hurt” by one another, or maybe it’s a “yes let’s” “yes and” mentality that holds them back from exploring conflict or interpersonal disruption, but this is something I’d love to see the crew push themselves to do. 
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Without the increase of stakes, two things end up paying a price. One is that the show as a whole becomes atonal. It’s a lovely and enjoyable slice of the everyday. That’s totally fine, totally delightful, but why play such bold characters if we don’t get to see what’s important to them? The other, is a lack of resolution. On this particular night there is almost some attempted ret-con in the last ten minutes as the characters talk about forgiving each other and being so glad to have become such close friends. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite come off, because we haven’t seen enough of a journey to accept that the characters have learned or been changed by the events of the show. 

With that said, the Hall Monitors have created a stellar format and a thoroughly enjoyable improv show in The Hall Monitors Present: Time Out. They are clearly a company to keep an eye on as they continue to develop and create new work, because their skill and talent is undeniable. I cannot wait to see what they produce next!
The Hall Monitors Present: Time Out played at the Gryphon Theatre on 20 March 2021 as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. You can keep an eye out for their future works by following them on Facebook.