Menswear - The Founder

The Founder | Wednesday 23 February 2011
E X T R A
15
Arts
‘The Holloway Players have been upstaged’
Thomas Mayo
When the Holloway Players stand
up to perform, they generally have
no idea what they’re doing. By
which I mean they won’t know
what they’re doing until they’re
doing it, and by then the spotlight
is on and the show is in full swing.
The compere gives them a game
to play, the audience calls out a
relationship, situation or location
to adopt, and then they stand up in
front of a minimum of 100 people
and begin. And they’re bloody good
at it.
The shows themselves are a series
of games, a la Whose Line is it
Anyway; improvised comedy on
tap. The society has been performing
for several years now, doing a
couple of shows each term, filling
Tommy’s Bar on Thursday nights
with a crowd of tipsy onlookers
(yes, there will always be a bar).
And now, after their sell-out first
SU show in mid-January, they’re
stepping it up, performing two or
three times a month. Their next
show is on Feb 21st, which is soon,
in case you were wondering. In fact,
what you were more likely wondering
is what exactly you’ll be getting
when you buy your ticket – and
trust me, you should buy one.
What you’ll be getting is varied,
unique, and kind of masochistic. In
the eyes of the Players, every new
way of making things more difficult
for themselves is a new game. There
are games where they can’t speak
and games where they can’t move.
There are games where three people
must become one, or where one
person ends up being four, games
where they have to guess who their
fellow improvisers are, or even who
they themselves are, games that test
their storytelling, acting, memory,
mime, or which demand that they
sing an improvised song (in tune)
on the spot. And half the time, the
slightest stumble from a performer
will result in the entire audience
yelling ‘die’ at them with tremendous
vigour. And then there’s the
strong likelihood that they’ll be
asked to become the moon, or
Pulls-Fishes-From-His-Armpits-
Man, or simply the concept of
taxidermy.
Okay, guess who’s biased? You
caught me, wily reader, I’ve been
a RHUL Player for almost a year
and a half now, and dammit I’m
proud. Obviously, I can’t review
myself, but I can review the rest of
them. I am, as I’ve said, ‘biased’ but
luckily, as I type, my aching hand
reminds me of exactly why they’re
so good. No, it’s nothing sexual.
It’s just that we spend a minimum
of 6 hours a week workshopping,
discussing, practicing, and yet still,
two days ago, I managed to bruise
my hand through embarrassingly
over-enthusiastic clapping, a wound
which joins my three Player-caused
scars (two heavy carpet burns and a
stab wound) as a badge of honour. I
still enter a state of unseemly mirth
when a game begins, because it’s
never the same thing twice, and
these people are brilliant.
And if that’s not enough in the
way of critical acclaim, don’t worry,
there’s a reason we’re mounting the
main SU stage and putting on more
shows than ever before. It’s partly
that Tommy’s has started to be filled
to capacity, partly that in all the
time I’ve watched the Players there’s
never been a bad show, but mostly
that no-one at Royal Holloway, noone,
dare I say, in the great county
of Surrey, is quite so dedicated to
making prats of themselves for
your enjoyment. Of course, it helps
that you, gentle reader/soon-to-beaudience-member,
get to call out
suggestions just to make our lives
more ‘interesting’. But don’t worry,
we can handle it.
The Holloway Players have several
shows coming up, their main
performances being Feb 21st in
Tommy’s, March 10th in Tommy’s
(Free!), and March 22nd for their
second SU Main Hall show.