The MIXTAPE Vol 2
Fringe Bar, 26-32 Allen St, Te Aro, Wellington
03/08/2016 - 05/08/2016
Production Details
The Mixtape has improvisers playing along to music
Your Mixtape. Their story.
This winter, let Best on Tap warm the cockles of your heart with a tale of how music can bring two people together.
For The Mixtape, each audience member creates a seven-track mixtape dedicated to a special person in their life. As one lucky tape is played, improviser troupe Best on Tap will riff off their songs to navigate the complexities of a human relationship.
Mixtapes have a special place in the heart of director Wiremu Tuhiwai, “I’m an 80’s child so early on in my life I just loved cassette tapes and music. The Mixtape itself is such a great under-rated form of expression which had so many layers that the compiler had created for their recipient. Every song will affect people differently, especially when it’s fairly well-known songs from the past.” Audiences are invited to hum along!
From a stellar premiere performance at last year’s New Zealand Improv Festival (“If you were to script it, you’d think it was at least at third draft stage” – Theatreview), The Mixtape returns for a three-night run at The Fringe Bar. Jamming along to your song choices, the improvisers of Best on Tap will bring lives, loves, and laughs to the stage in a mixtape that has never been heard or seen before.
Entirely improvised, made up on the spot for your delight, The Mixtape will take you back and forth through time to some of the best beats APN will let us play.
Where will your mixtape take us?
The Mixtape Vol 2
Fringe Bar, 26 Allan Street, Wellington
3 August – 5 August
7pm
BOOKINGS: Eventfinder
TICKETS: Full: $10/Student: $8/Groups 5+: $8
PERFORMERS:
Adam Williamson
Barry Miskimmin
Geoff Simmons
Kate Wilson
Matt Hutton
Mary Little
Nicola Pauling
Wiremu Tuhiwai
Theatre , Musical , Improv ,
A refreshing approach to the art of improv
Review by Dianne Tennent 04th Aug 2016
On arrival at The Fringe Bar I’m greeted warmly at the door and invited to design my own cassette tape cover. I choose who to dedicate my mix tape to and whom it’s from; I can draw a little picture and choose seven songs from the list to represent the relationship.
I choose my two-year ‘on again off again’ relationship with my boyfriend and call it What is Even Going On? I tuck the cover into a real cassette case, hand it back, take my seat and wait to find out if it will get chosen. To the delight of someone in the audience, the chosen tape turns out to be When Amy Met Sam and the show begins.
When watching skilful improvisation, it’s easy to forget that the actors are actually making this all up on the spot – it’s that good. The team embarks on a series of multi-layered vignettes, which span decades and countries – flashbacks and air travel included – to tell the complicated story of the events leading to Amy and Sam’s holy matrimony.
The scenes are poignantly punctuated with the chosen tracks and the actors – Adam Williamson, Barry Miskimmin, Geoff Simmons, Kate Wilson, Mary Little, and director Wiremu Tuhiwai – make seamless references to lyrical content.
Some of the most entertaining moments are when the actors’ minor blunders are patched up back into the narrative, as when Amy ‘changes’ her name to Marie, and then to Jane, then Brenda… The actors have a real comic sensibility, getting a great response from the audience.
But along with the silliness comes a thematic element: our main character Amy coming to terms with her identity. I’m impressed that this idea is built on and developed throughout the performance.
The crew get more daring as the show continues, throwing out challenges to each other. A voice from off stage commands, “Now Sam gives us a monologue,” and he complies.
The highlight for me comes just at the end, where the narrative almost veers off course in a high-risk turn of events, but is safely landed with a satisfying sense of completion.
I love the interactive element of this show and the refreshing approach to the art of improv.
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