Improvised Movie Mash-Up

Perhaps the most enviable skill that an actor can bring is the lightning-fast ability to create and weave a story on the run. The Changing Jennifers have that in abundance. Part of their magic lays in the madcap unpredictability, and dare I say, the total unbelievability of their stories.  Their latest Fringe show, Improvised Movie Mash Up takes the audience on a zany, fast-paced roller coaster ride of the improbable, untenable and hilarious.

For the show I saw, and every show is unique and created by audience prompts and choice, the usual foursome was a trio of lunatics and it appears that this unique group prefers to protect their identity (it makes sense as it would be harder to lock them up!), but using my best detective skills, I established that it was founder, Eden Trebilco, Sam Calleja and Sam Hobbs-Griffin who managed to massage The Exorcist and  the Japanese classic, Godzilla minus 1 into a 60 minute, totally implausible, multi-character, gender and species romp.

Frankly, telling the story is irrelevant, but suffice to say, the characters and plot snippets gives a hint of the tenor of this tale. Notably, Artemis Johnson is a Japanese kamikaze pilot who is a coward, reviled in ‘the homeland’ (Japan), who is redeemed and becomes a hero. Professor Jurgenson, who is childless, and is an expert scientist specialising in atomic radiation who befriends and adopts a simpering brat, Steven Green who also morphs into a little girl who in turn, becomes a 100-foot-tall monster. The Pope has a brother from whom he is estranged and who is an Italian Cardinal and an armed assassin. Get the picture?

The list of props supporting this cavalcade is as sparce as 2 chairs, (one dangerously unreliable), and two never played a VHS cassette. The talent pool is deep as all three create sound effects, music, tension, excitement and a M15+ story that is, at times, totally politically incorrect, language colourful and bewildering. 

This is a ‘must see’ show for any aspiring actor or drama student. It is also a fabulous belly laugh. I wonder what they could do with Snow White and Silence of the Lambs?

Jude Hines

Photographer: James Vinicombe