Bristol Sitcom Trials team Oct 2012
UPDATE:
See videos of all 5 sitcoms
Hello!
The Sitcom Trials returned to Bristol's Wardrobe Theatre on Friday 19th October for a special "week-and-a-bit-before-Halloween" show, which once again sold-out.
The
evening's splendid host was Becky Brunning, a member of the Bristol
team and a terrific stand-up. Becky made sure the audience was in a
Halloweeny kind of mood by regularly encouraging everyone to give their
very best spooky noises and evil laughs, and she had a special repartee
going with a vocal audience member named Boycie ("You're absolutely in
the right place," quipped Becky), and had great fun with the Pitch Fests
by asking the audience whether pitches should be placed in her "pocket
of opportunity", or discarded to the "floor of regret".
First
out of the gate was "The Brides of Pete-Enstein" by Iain Kellier. This
was one of the more Halloween-y of the sitcoms (featuring a mad
scientist and a stitched-together re-animated corpse during a
thunderstorm) and was attacked with real energy by the cast. It's a
strange law of the Sitcom Trials that the first sitcom of the show is
always the most difficult for an audience to get into, though
"Pete-Enstein's" cracking (and very funny) cliffhanger was one of the
best of the night. Incidentally, we didn't notice this until late into
the rehearsal process, but a fair few of the sitcoms made reference to
Einstein - and this was the first, with the theoretical physicist being
evaluated on his shagability*.
CALLY - Janet Adams
KEREN - Anna Gallager
LISA - Louisa Smith
PETE - Troy Hewitt
"Three
in Tow" by Ioin Carney was up next - a more sedate and character-driven
piece about ghosts, and probably the most traditional of the sitcoms.
The audience seemed to get this one immediately - proving once again
that a simple plot, strong characters and a high gag-rate is always
going to play well in a live environment. The core Bristol team are a
competitive bunch, and actor/writer Lewis Cook has pointed out that he's
now been in all three winning sitcoms staged in Bristol this year.
Next time we'll cast him in all five, to give all the sitcoms an even
chance. A line of dialogue from "Three in Tow" - "We buried your
lifeless corpse, so call me Einstein" - was the second reference to the
Nobel Prize winning father of modern physics.
RUTH - Naomi Carter
PETER - Lewis Cook
SANDRA - Janet Adams
ROGER - John Lomas
Sitcom
number three was "The Princess of Darkness Wants a Tan" by Oliver Ley,
an almost pantomime excursion into a fairy tale land populated by evil
princesses, put-upon handmaidens, vampires and werewolves. This had the
largest cast (who all raided the costume box) and some complicated
staging - especially regarding the werewolf. And just as with "Se7en",
David Fincher's block-buster serial killer movie, it seems an audience
will always love a shock revelation about a severed head in a bag/box.
MORTITIA/SERENITY - Naomi Carter
CINDERELLA - Anna Gallagher
VLAD - Lewis Cook
LUCIEN - Troy Hewitt
QUEEN - Janet Adams
KING - John Lomas
After
the intermission, Becky read out more Pitch Fests, a few of which were
amusingly based around cheese or cattle (there may have been dairy
workers in the audience), plus a near-the knuckle Jimmy Savile themed
pitch that immediately hit the floor of regret.
"Mid-Afternoon
of the Dead" by Kev Page kicked off the second half of sitcoms with
aplomb - this one has some nifty ideas and a quirky perspective on the
zombie holocaust sub-genre. A malfunctioning prop aside (actor Troy
Hewitt's look of surprise was one of my favorite things of the evening),
this went swimmingly from the get-go. Our third Einstein reference
here was a visual gag (supported by dialogue) which had the
brains-hungry undead menace distracted by a photo of Bert, the guy who
did that e=mc2 thing. Kev Page was in the audience, with a friend named
Matt who very kindly filmed the show; hopefully very soon we'll be able
to upload the footage.
GEMMA - Louisa Smith
JULES - Naomi Carter
PROFESSOR - Janet Adams
OFFICER HARRIS - Troy Hewitt
"Here Comes The Science" by Stephen Keyworth was the
last sitcom of the night, and the one that didn't feel like a pilot
episode; with minimal exposition we were immediately into a developing
plot featuring strong characters . In rehearsal, this very British
sitcom suddenly became very American, which seemed to work perfectly.
Oddly, despite being a sitcom about scientists, this didn't have an
Einstein reference.
FIELDS - Troy Hewitt
YORNING - Louisa Smith
BARK - John Lomas
As
the voting took place, the winning Pitch Fest was chosen retro-stylee,
with a member of the audience invited on stage to catch slips of paper
as they were thrown in the air, with the rest of the audience joining
Becky in singing the theme tune to "The Crystal Maze". (Incidentally,
the winner never made himself known to me, so please do drop me a line
if you're reading this!)
The votes were close - closer, I think, than in any previous show at the Wardrobe.
"Three in Tow" = 14
"The Princess of Darkness Wants a Tan" = 13
"Here Comes the Science" = 12
"Mid Afternoon of the Dead" = 11
"The Brides of Pete-Enstein" = 8
Congrats
to Eoin Carney, who sadly couldn't be with us because he lives several
thousand miles away in a completely different time zone.
A
huge thank you to all the writers; and to the brilliant cast
(especially Louisa who gamely battled with a cold so that the show could
go on); to Becky Brunning, our marvelous compere for the night; and to
our talented director Alistair Hedderman; and to Kev F, as always; and
to the Wardrobe Theatre who are a complete delight to work with.
Our next show will be on Friday Feb 22nd - stay tuned for details.
--Vince Stadon
*
I've just remembered that we had an Einstein reference in one of the
sitcoms in the first Bristol show back in March, so clearly, for reasons
beyond my comprehension, this is now developing into some kind of weird
in-joke.
