Take one part absurd com­edy, one part awk­ward din­ner with your par­ents, and a dash of glor­i­ous man­i­cism, and you have The Din­ner, a unique improv show cur­rently being played at Circa Theatre.

Being per­formed for the first time out­side of Europe, this play brings togeth­er five din­ner guests (four friends, and a new acquaint­ance), for a meal that none of them will ever for­get. What’s the twist? Well, the entire thing is impro­vised. All the act­ors know is their char­ac­ter, and their rela­tion­ships with the oth­er guests, which the audi­ence helps provide at the start of the show.

At the start of the show, we’re sep­ar­ated into five groups (one for each of the per­formers), and taken off into corners of the theatre to help divine their char­ac­ters. Upon being asked a series of ques­tions, the audi­ence gives answers, and then each per­former must adopt those traits, back­stor­ies or out­fits into their char­ac­ter. Some gems from my group included, “What will I be like in ten years? – Mar­ried to Alan with three cats,” and  “How do I dress? – 80s retro.” From talk­ing to the oth­er per­son I was with, some of the oth­er sug­ges­tions from his group were quite saucy.

From there, we move into the the theatre. The act­ors are giv­en a few minutes to accli­mat­ize them­selves to their roles, dress up in a viol­ent array of cos­tumes, and mem­or­ise the excess of inform­a­tion we’ve just giv­en them – and then the show begins.

It’s a wild mis­match of a show, but hil­ari­ously funny and very enjoy­able. The per­formers do an admir­able job of hold­ing their roles, espe­cially in the face of such adversity – (one char­ac­ter was sim­ul­tan­eously a huge fan of Don­ald Trump, and yet very aware hol­ist­ic­ally and kind to his friends) – and the show is incred­ibly well per­formed.

My only issue is with the hand­ling of some of the con­tent.

Audi­ences of a cer­tain fla­vour and social class find cer­tain things funny, and that can lead to pit­falls when they’re allowed to sug­gest char­ac­ter traits to impro­visers. How­ever, it would have been nice if the mere men­tion of gay and trans char­ac­ters in the show weren’t treated as cheap shots.

While not advoc­at­ing for the cen­sor­ship of cer­tain types of con­tent, there are def­in­itely ways to steer an audi­ence away from see­ing minor­it­ies as com­ic relief, and I don’t think the per­formers did their best to nego­ti­ate that dynam­ic. I abso­lutely didn’t expect to come for a nice night out and be greeted with mild trans­pho­bia and homo­pho­bia (due to the hand­ling of the audience’s sug­ges­tions), but unfor­tu­nately, myself and my com­pan­ion were.

In all, though, The Din­ner is a fun show. Due to its impro­vised nature, the con­tent, char­ac­ters, and tone change every night, so it’s def­in­itely worth see­ing in the theatre.

 

The Din­ner is being per­formed at Circa Theatre in Wel­ling­ton from now until the 25th of August. Tick­ets are avail­able here.

For the spe­cial Visa Wel­ling­ton on a Plate pre-show din­ner spe­cial, click here!