Honest Liars set out on their first International debut.
Okay, so not quite international, but a couple of towns away meant travelling and pulling an over-nighter for some of the players as there was to be a workshop the next day. The troupe had been invited to stage a show for the Waihi Drama Society.
Signs had gone up around town, and it certainly had paid off, as they were to play to a full house. Seventy-six excited people of all ages were there to see what this lot of improvisers could do.
Emcee, Melissa got the audience revved up by getting them to start clapping from 1 to 10 (10 being the loudest clapping and cheering they could do) and, of course, at 10 the players all came bounding onto the stage to the full-on applause – certainly hyped everyone up.
The first game was “World’s Worst” with one of the subjects being “Neighbours”. The audience was delighted when Kathy picked up the dog pooh and threw it over the fence, but they simply fell apart with laughter as Neil stepped forward, picked the pooh up and threw it right back.
“Pocket Notes” had Kelly O, Kim and Melissa at Waihi College trying to find glasses and ending up in detention. With notes such as “Time for medication”, “Go faster” and “Should have gone to Spec Savers” interwoven through the plot, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the way their phrases were used.
After that, it was the fabulous “Sign Language” game which is always a crowd favourite as Kelly D signed for the BBC interviewer, Kevin and his guest, played by Jon who was a teacher of guitar to – wait for it – sloths. Yes, tricky as that sounds, Kelly D pulled it off and signed her way into the funny bones of all who watched on.
The game with “Props” found our player Kathy again smoking grass … something she has done before!
A few more games then it was the “Clap Game” with Kim, Kelly D, Sally, Jon, Kevin and Neil making up three teams with three different subjects stealing lines from each other. Then it was on to “Movie Trailers” with Kathy, Melissa, Neil and Melanie all vying for a shot to get their movie in front of a Hollywood Director played by Fee. Finally, the audience needed to rest their laughing muscles, and so a 15-minute break was held.
But they all quickly came back in to enjoy the second half starting with Neil taking on the role of emcee and getting the audience to set the scene for Jon and Melissa for the game “Film-Noir”. It saw the two of them in the local Subway, and Jon quickly established the role as a cigarette smoking worker making burgers. Melissa soon pointed out that Jon was a widower and sure enough the two started flirting until, to the delight of the laughing audience, they rushed off the stage when Jon said he had always wanted to take all the money and run away with her.
“Scene 3 Ways” was set in Paris. Fee and Jon were a couple wanted to find some marijuana – what is it about this weed that it keeps coming up? And then they spied Kelly D who told them to met her at the top of the Eiffel Tower where she knew someone who knew someone who knew where to get the stuff. However, it looked an impossible climb especially when the second scene played out as a Western (no elevator) and the third a Melodrama even worse with Fee on her death-bed.
In the second half, there was a bit of audience participation starting with “The Night We Met” and a wonderful couple, Colin and Sylvia coming on stage to tell their story. This was then acted out by Jon and Kim, who did an exceptional job except when they got it wrong, giving both Colin and Sylvia a great excuse to use the hooter and buzz them.
The “Change Game” started off seeing Melanie and Kelly O figuring out who was going to do the dishes and wondering if they should interrupt their flatmates who having sex on the couch in the other room. The game ended with them deciding to leave well enough alone and just do the dishes themselves.
Then it was time to bring up a couple of audience members to have a go.
Two young guys happily jumped up on stage to give the change commands to Fee and Neil, two pilots who were arguing as to which one was in charge. Needless to say, the pilots ended up putting their parachutes on and were about to jump because rudders and wings were falling off or on fire – one does wonder how scenes can change so quickly, but thanks go to S.J. and Jackson for their input in having into the game and getting the audience laughing and clapping.
The night ended on an absolute high seeing Melissa conduct the “Emotional Symphony” with players Kathy, Melanie, Kelly O and Kevin and the audience. A wonderful cacophony of sounds was the result with the crowd both on and off stage brought up to a massive climatic ending and the rest of the troupe running on to take a bow to end the show.
Honest Liars was definitely a hit with at The Theatre, Waihi.
Thanks to the players:
Melissa
Neil
Kevin
Fee
Kelly O
Kelly D |
Jon
Kathy
Melanie
Kim
Sally |
