Without A Hitchcock: Imporvisational Theatre But Without The Suspence – Adelaide Fringe Review

Tandanya Theatre, Wed 2 Mar Did I get what I was expecting? No, but then you never do when you are watching Hitchcock do you? Reading the Fringe guide, I was expecting tension filled, suspenseful and improvised stories, what I got was definitely improvisational theatre, perhaps not at it’s finest but certainly improvisational but without much of the tension and suspense. Each of the five performers were part of a story that was created for us, on the spot, inspired by two words offered by audience members. In our case, the two words were “cat” and “shadow”. The scenes then unfolded in front of us, taking us through the entwining story of Paul and John and the various people that affect their friendship. While the story was improvised and performed well, cleverly involving the words offered by the audience, there was not a great amount of dramatic tension or suspense, as advertised. Instead we were watching a lovely story of boy meets girl and then loses girl but then finds a boy and all the trappings that go with that. The ending to ‘our’ story was poignant and lovely, but not something that I think Hitchcock himself would film. Clearly, there is varying levels of experience on stage, so congratulations need to be offered to our ‘Paul’ (Jarrad Parker) who was able to link every scene on stage tonight and keep the plot moving forward. As each plot twist relays on ‘offering’ an alternative to what is happening and changing direction in the scene, some of the performers were able to do this with more ease than others. For improvisational theatre, I can recommend the evening, but for Hitchcock suspenseful theatre, not so much. Charissa McCluskey-Garcia Without A Hitchcock continues at Tandanya Theatre from 8pm until Fri 4 Mar. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.