Any night out that features a playlist ranging from Lizzo to Kate Bush is certain to get me grooving along, seated and all! Add a handful of incredible improvisers, who, as it turns out, are also very funky dancers, and you’ve got yourself Shuffle Gods – a joyous, original improv production that leaves audiences uncertain of whether they’d prefer to get up on stage and play along in scenes, or simply just join the cast for a boogie!

The concept is simple. We, the audience, are the Shuffle Gods and the fate of the players is in our hands via the most fun QR code we’ve scanned in recent times. Upon entering The Dome, we are instructed to access a mystical playlist featuring 23 songs that will determine the nature of scenes, varying in scope from Pavarotti and Herbie Hancock to Donna Summer and The Wiggles.  

Directed by Liz Butler, in their New Zealand Improv Festival directorial debut, Shuffle Gods features a top-notch cast of improvisers – Malcolm Morrison, Wiremu Tuhiwai, Emma Brittenden, Christine Brooks, Ben Jardine, Pája Neuhöferová, Tristram Domican, Steve Violich and Laura Irish – all of whom shine across the 12 scenes performed, bringing their own unique set of improv and comedic skills as well as solid dance moves to the stage.

At the beginning of every scene, players ask us, the Shuffle Gods, for a number, any number, just a wee number to bless them with. From the get-go, the audience is on board with a chorus of numbers jumbling together to the point where Liz jokes that we need to have them beg, and earn their enthusiastic warble of number suggestions – a mash-up of every number between 1 to 23. 

Our first five scenes feature players drawing inspiration from ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’ by Taylor Swift, ‘Good 4 U’ by Olivia Rodrigo, ‘9 to 5’ by Dolly Parton, ‘Smoko’ by The Chats, and ‘Babooshka’ by Kate Bush as Sound and Lighting Operator, Dean, gifts the players with 20-30 seconds of music for them to dance to, then fades out, leaving players in the often confusing, sometimes compromising positions their dance moves have found them in. Thus start the scenes.

Stand-out moments include Laura Irish’s knack for characters, with a memorable cigarette smoking Mrs Claus whilst Tristram Domican consistently proves his skill at expertly shifting narratives to the downright absurd, like convincing a surfer played by Laura to buy an XXXL Tupperware container at a Briscoe’s store to ride waves with. Emma Brittenden brings grizzly characters to life, including one with a plot to destroy the BBC, and is a joy to watch as she quite literally dances into a bend-back to Kate Bush, her physicality in the show being a real highlight.  

At this stage, we Shuffle Gods are drunk on power and Director Liz puts the decision in our hands between, ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’ and ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ with marginally more claps for Boots, but a few cheers for Christmas. So Mariah Carey takes a back seat and a delightful scene is brought to life with Wiremu Tuhiwai tasked with only using lyrics from Nancy Sinatra’s classic to guide a hilarious scene with Laura.

Wiremu has a real knack for pace and miming as he silently smokes and extinguishes a cigarette in his hand, building tension as Laura laces her boots. They nail what could be a challenge, with Laura delivering an audience stealing line, “That’s anatomically impossible,” in response to Wiremu’s, “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.”

The following six scenes are a delight, with the audience loving our role as Shuffle Gods and the players well and truly warmed up and all on top of their game, bringing memorable scenes and dance moves to the stage as they draw inspiration from the likes of ‘Good as Hell’ by Lizzo, ‘I Want To Be Your Lover’ by Prince, ‘Intergalactic’ by The Beastie Boys, ‘Get UR Freak On’ by Missy Elliot and an all-cast dance party to ‘HUMBLE’ by Kendrick Lamar.

The format of Shuffle Gods is clever, original and inspiring, allowing real moments of wit and charm, in particular when the charismatic pairing of Ben Jardine and Malcolm Morrison dancing to Prince leads to the opening line of, ‘I Want To Be Your Lover’ and a heartwarming confession, followed by the exchange of the ‘lover ring’, an object that then makes its way across a total of three subsequently hilarious scenes.

One of these scenes features the dream team of Ben and Malcolm, tasked with the lyrics of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, who once again nail a moving, funny scene with the aid of Christine Brooks who displays a knack for creating really warm, awkwardly relatable and hilarious characters who are key in developing the stories throughout the show.

These exchanges are proof of a strong cast who, whilst all incredible in their own right, are so well matched in terms of improvisational and comedy skills that the entire show is a delight, and the charisma and humour of the improvisers is a joy to watch, particularly in the one group scene where Wiremu plays Eminem being questioned by a group of music students.

The cast as a whole is incredibly supportive and it is wonderful to witness scenes unfold so organically. Liz, who sits at a desk on stage, positively beams with pride as scenes unfold, using their own sense of improv timing to call lights out after peak comedic moments.

Pája Neuhöferová brings excellent character physicality, funky dance moves, and warm comedic one-liners to the stage, addressing her pet owls with, “I need money and I need to sell your babies” whilst Steve – who marries deeply poignant, very touching realism with comedy throughout the night – gives us the oddly moving line, “I want to learn massage whilst receiving it. I don’t want to go home without having grown as a person.”

As that line is said, I consider it and agree. I don’t want to go home without having grown as a person.

And you know what, as cheesy as it is, as I relished my role of being a Shuffle God, filled with even warmer memories associated with the music of Lizzo than ever before and the desire to dance and groove my way home, I think I did grow a little and that’s a pretty great feat for a show.

Shuffle Gods achieves something magical. As an improviser, I feel very impressed by the level of talent and skill the cast brings to the stage, and as a music lover, I enjoy witnessing the challenge of starting scenes with tracks and watching players navigate the space. Shuffle Gods has been a joyous success that leaves me curious about the multitude of different ways that a different, godly audience could’ve swung the fates of the players.

An exceptional NZIF debut by Liz Butler and all involved!

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