Improvised Dr Who | D4WH
Ronan: "I don't think I'll get the Dr Who jokes. I haven’t seen all the recent episodes.”
Me: “Don’t worry, I don’t know anyone who has seen them all. Did you know Dr Who has been going since 1963?”
We enter the theatre and seats are filled. The lights switch off, the Spotify play list cuts, the mics not on, we laugh, the audience laughs. We hear “We're having a tech issue, so talk among yourselves”. So, what do a couple of women do seated behind me? Sing the Dr Who theme song, so of course, I join in as do others with a rendition no fan would think was worthy – out of tune, with a couple of dog howls - but what the heck, we were ready to jump in the Tardis to travel to an alternative dimension full of aliens, Daleks, Cybermen and save the world cliches.
“Are you ready for some improvised Dr Who?” The audience whistles and cheers. Ronan and I look at each other and grin.
Hosted by Adam O'Sullivan who plays Dr Who. The cast includes Brad, Scott, Claire, Olivia, Calvin and Chris. After 5 minutes listening to off topic banter, the scene is finally set during the Manhattan Project, 1944. The cast takes us through some pretty wacky situations, evil scientists who are setting off a bomb, a ditsy companion who eventually gets absorbed by a liquid formation into goo and so does her counterpart complete with innuendos involving other cast members, and insinuations that Dr Who falls in love with every companion. The evil scientists win the day, harmonizing in sync – the countdown to 50 billion lightyears of destruction is on. Both Ronan and I agree these two characters Blue Tit and Dr Hagenfarger, whose name gets said wrong each time, are the standouts. Eventually everyone self-destructs and the goo survives. Dr Who fails to turn the goo back into the character ‘Sarah / Sarah’ because of a chain reaction that will be rip the universe open. It is one of the main Dr Who tricks to further the narrative for future episodes.
The cast played to a standard long-from style including the introduction, introducing the characters, setting the scene, creating a story, and delivering the resolution. The cast did well at supporting their team by keeping the story evolving, returning to themes, and riffing ideas. However, being a Dr Who fan like most 70’s babies, they missed a huge opportunity to pay homage to the Dr Who BBC TV series as a formative classic. It lacked elements of the history and themes the series introduced to a generation or three into science fiction and the mysterious parallel worlds beyond. At their best, the show had hallmarks of an American style sitcom. Comedy Improvisation is all about making things up on the spot and the cast certainly achieved this. The cast could have benefitted from a stronger performer well versed in improv to keep the ball rolling, so we could have traversed further than wondering if Dr Who and his companion eats in the Tardis and how the sonic screwdriver works.
Ronan: “Maybe it’s because you don’t get the jokes, like I did.”
Me: “Thanks for the roasting Ronan.”
The show certainly made me ponder about how commercial TV has become the platform for comedians to utilize this form – think Seinfeld for the witty one-liners, characterization, and scene creation. I felt the Dr Who brand is a fantastic basis for improv because it is so ripe for the exploitation of its material. I look forward to seeing more shows like this one take on mocking popular culture.
Harmonie Downes and Ronan Dowse are a mother-son duo who like to trade notes across theatrical generations.
