The other night - a very rainy Vancouver November night - I went over to Granville Island to meet a friend and go to the Arts Club Revue Stage to see Christmas Eve of Destruction. This is the theatre though you have to picture it as very dark and very wet to get the whole ambience.
Christmas Eve of Destruction is put on by Vancouver Theatresports, an improv comedy troupe and it was dropdead, rolling in the aisles funny.
It's a takeoff on the TV series 24 - and all through the play there is a giant clock ticking off the seconds to Christmas. There is, of course, an evil plot to ruin Christmas, a Jack clone, a Kim clone, and various other clones, none of whom I knew because I don't watch 24. But it didn't matter. 24 has become enough of our pulp culture to make the references easy to follow whether you watch it or not.
The funniest part is the audience participation. This is what makes it improv. They'll go into the audience and ask questions and then include those answers into the play. Where were you last off the continent? Scotland. Now the villains are Scottish. Where do you do your Christmas shopping? Sears. Now they shop at Sears. Everyone tapped in the audience was brilliant and funny and played along... they were amazing.
There are plenty of references to locations in Vancouver, plenty of movie references (one of the Scottish villains had a Sean Connery accent).
And, of course, in the end, Christmas was saved. Can't ask for anything more than that.
Kate
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