‘Hill vs Bailey’ review
‘a perfectly joyous time’
Comedy guns cocked and rearing for a shootout, Shellshock!’s troupe of improvisers stand divided; Hill representatives are decked in on-theme red bandanas and scarves as the Bailey troupe rocks their blue, the atmosphere buzzing with energy before any quips are even delivered. They go on to play a series of improv games, yes-and-ing like their lives depend on it, eager to proudly declare themselves superior in the annual ‘Hill Vs Bailey’ feud.
Endearingly embarrassed (but enthusiastic) about it all are the hosts – Beau Dunnett and Molly Barnes-Tate – who mediate and moderate the night with just as much skill as the players, embracing a self-deprecating humour in the form of a tally for “M&B’s Sad Points”, which rack up at least 20 marks by its end. They conduct a responsive crowd, participants in their own right as they throw suggestions onto the stage; everything from setting a scene in “an Elizabethan gay bar” to making two Greek philosophers (who don’t know anything and are convinced the other is a genius) deliver noir-style audience monologues. Laughs, claps, and snapping swerve the course of each scene, enabling the audience to get progressively more comfortable and truly be a part of them.
The troupe sift through time periods and occupations at a breakneck speed, embodying lives and squeezing out their essence, leaving behind only the funniest residue. An interrogation scene saw a pair of lowlife criminals, personified by a chaotically witty Nemo Royle and a brilliantly sharp straight-man Henry Cole, attempting to guess that they had committed the heinous crime of kidnapping Father Christmas alongside their accomplice Miss Piggy, who got away in the Batmobile. Will Hines and Tim Sypchenko play opposite them in a bad-cop-sexy-cop duo laced with a criminal seductive edge, the eroticism of which happens to be a theme throughout the evening. Particularly funny was Hines’ clever subtle switch into a Batman voice two-thirds into the scene, and Royle’s following copious Batman villain puns.
Shellshock! excels in driving a premise completely off the rails (this is wholly complimentary), and much enjoyment is found from the troupe’s equal delight and bafflement as the scenes progress to unprecedented places, even as they’re driving its course. The aforementioned Greek philosophy bit (done by Will Hines and Kiera Lane) ends up with both on the floor, confidently declaring that they hate women. Lane, whose line deliveries are consistently excellent, closes it off with a killer “I hate my mother”.
Clara Springman was a standout – quick to retort, and embodying a physicality in each part, her range is vast, from convincing Lane that nicotine is good for birds, to an improvised alligator-themed duets with Hines. The musical bit is a strong contender for the best one of the evening, the pair impressively (and hilariously) coming up with three songs on the fly, backed by Barnes’ excellent guitar.
Another contender is the rotating box game, which has four members switching between roles and scenes every time the host tells them to. Etna Nebreda Boto, Izaak Gilbert, Springman, and Lane rise to the challenge, each rotation developing a story, picking up the intensity such that most of it ends in violence and death. Nebreda Boto and Gilbert’s scene between Abe Lincoln and Kermit the frog is particularly gripping, an American civil war with the Muppets sparking the line “No one’s going to be putting their hands up my ass anymore!” before he dramatically shoots Abe. Nebreda Boto and Kiera are also electric, committing so wholly to their prompt “exorcism” (there was a demon and knife-throwing) that Dunnett and Barnes-Tate are repeatedly apologetic for the rest of the night.
The evening ends in a tie, broken by the Bailey team’s win at scissors-paper-stone. Ranch-y and raunchy, Shellshock!'s ‘Hill Vs Bailey 2025’ is a perfectly joyous time that you don’t want to miss. You’ll get 'em next year, Hill team!
By Ashley Zhou.