Successfully marrying impromptu acting and spirited competition, the participants of ‘Act Before You Think’, were once again on stage for another round of side splitting comedy. This time however, two new teams, ‘Osama’s Bush’ and ‘Cats on a Hot Tin Roof’, stepped up to entertain the energetic audience at the Warehouse Project in Maradana.
The night’s competition was essentially a dramatic battle between the two sexes, with ‘Cats on a Hot Tin Roof’ consisting of an all female four member team and ‘Osama’s Bush’ comprising four men. Both teams were uninhibited in their portrayals of a range of hilarious characters and situations, but it was Osama’s Bush (who was dubbed Team B, and will thus remain throughout the course of this article) who eventually ran away with a winning score of 124 points to Cats on a Hot Tin Roof’s (Team A) 94 points.
For those oblivious to the competition’s concept, ‘Act Before You Think’, organised by the Mind Adventures Theatre Company, is built in a similar mould as that of popular American television show, ‘Whose line is it Anyway’, except in this case the points really do matter, although it is hard to tell with the mellow atmosphere that penetrates the large space of the one time warehouse.
Kicking things off was a game where both teams had to put their twist on a well known and much loved story in a way that didn’t render the plot unidentifiable. To make sure this occurred, the audience was tasked with naming the story at the end of the round. Team A’s ‘Little Miss Muffet’ skit was comical and certainly easy to guess, but the boys from Team B, with a very provocative, albeit slightly vulgar take on ‘Cinderella’, had the crowd really in stitches and deservedly took the round.
In keeping with the informal aura that pervaded, one girl from the audience barked that judges, Richard Simon, Steve De La Zilva and Feroze Kamardeen were being biased towards the men and demanded there be a woman on the panel. After this request was laughed off, the contest moved forward with several other games which induced even more laughter and friendly banter.
Two of the standout performances of the night came when Team B compellingly enacted an elephant house commercial, complete with a human sized sausage sizzling convulsively in the centre of the stage, and when Team A starred in a game called 'Reduction'.
During this game Team A had periods of 30, 15 and 5 seconds to act out segments of Romeo and Juliet, which they did quite effectively, culminating in a phase where there was just a rush of conversation before all the characters collapsed to the floor dead. The round duly awarded to Team A, guest judge Feroze Kamardeen quipped, “I suppose Romeo and Juliet is easy to do because everyone does die in the end.”
As the night forged on it seemed that the boys were gradually falling into their niche and although they moved on to claim victory with relative ease, most of the attendees had forgotten completely about competition and were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
This was also in part due to the witty interaction of hosts, Tracy Holsinger and Brandon Ingram, with the judges, the competitors and the audience. At the end of proceedings Osama’s Bush were an ecstatic and slightly relieved bunch and readily admitted to the experience being quite challenging, adding, “ We just got together an hour before we got on and went through a couple of exercises, so overall we are glad with what we accomplished.”
The finals of ‘Act Before You Think’ will take place this Thursday at the Warehouse Project, down Tripoli Road in Maradana. Tickets can be purchased there or at Coco Veranda.
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