From the school of the old TV show ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ comes the practice of improvised comedy, and Oxford Comedy Deathmatch gave a very good account of the art at Abingdon’s Unicorn Theatre this December.
Over four nights OCD created from scratch a different panto. The final night, when this reviewer attended, was chosen by the audience to be Sinbad. That is to say, the story was nominally that of Sinbad, but immediately it veered from tradition when an inspired audience member (OK, it was me!) volunteered that Sinbad lived in Swindon. And the tale never really came back as it wended its way through Kierkegaard giving train timetable information, the chief baddy employing a magical coffee making machine, Simon Cowell acting as an incompetent first mate (with a 29 Years Long Service Award), and a final happy ending as the pantomime dame (Aladdin’s mother) give up her job as a self-employed forensic biologist after finding true love on Blind Date with the entire cast of the Simpsons.
There was a loose structure of improvised games (such as starting each sentence with the next letter of the alphabet; having a freeze frame fight with two audience members moving the actors; incorporating statements pre-written on pieces of paper by the audience and pulled at random from a bucket). However, the dialogue and comedy was obviously spontaneous, cleverly making references to earlier audience suggestions and building upon itself to heights of genuinely funny, if seriously improbable, comedy. The cast in their dowdy OCD uniform (think Steve Jobs in Poundland jeans and sweater) transformed themselves with an array of unlikely costumes and props.
I had seen this troupe at one of their monthly shows in Oxford, and that had a couple of 'misses' - but this one had none at all. I was slightly nervous about how my two teenagers would make sense of this panto (or the mere fact that I was even taking them to a panto). But they confounded me by shouting suggestions and shaking with laughter.
The proceeds all went to Oxford’s Pathway Project, a local charity which provides employment to people with disabilities – not one I had heard of I am ashamed to say, but the promotion of the charity at the venue was impressive too.
The theatre was absolutely freezing on a very cold night, but this was an excellent evening and I’ll certainly be going back next year.
Over four nights OCD created from scratch a different panto. The final night, when this reviewer attended, was chosen by the audience to be Sinbad. That is to say, the story was nominally that of Sinbad, but immediately it veered from tradition when an inspired audience member (OK, it was me!) volunteered that Sinbad lived in Swindon. And the tale never really came back as it wended its way through Kierkegaard giving train timetable information, the chief baddy employing a magical coffee making machine, Simon Cowell acting as an incompetent first mate (with a 29 Years Long Service Award), and a final happy ending as the pantomime dame (Aladdin’s mother) give up her job as a self-employed forensic biologist after finding true love on Blind Date with the entire cast of the Simpsons.
There was a loose structure of improvised games (such as starting each sentence with the next letter of the alphabet; having a freeze frame fight with two audience members moving the actors; incorporating statements pre-written on pieces of paper by the audience and pulled at random from a bucket). However, the dialogue and comedy was obviously spontaneous, cleverly making references to earlier audience suggestions and building upon itself to heights of genuinely funny, if seriously improbable, comedy. The cast in their dowdy OCD uniform (think Steve Jobs in Poundland jeans and sweater) transformed themselves with an array of unlikely costumes and props.
I had seen this troupe at one of their monthly shows in Oxford, and that had a couple of 'misses' - but this one had none at all. I was slightly nervous about how my two teenagers would make sense of this panto (or the mere fact that I was even taking them to a panto). But they confounded me by shouting suggestions and shaking with laughter.
The proceeds all went to Oxford’s Pathway Project, a local charity which provides employment to people with disabilities – not one I had heard of I am ashamed to say, but the promotion of the charity at the venue was impressive too.
The theatre was absolutely freezing on a very cold night, but this was an excellent evening and I’ll certainly be going back next year.