A criminally good and utterly hilarious stage show made it to The Lyric Theatre’s stage thanks to ROARS 'off Broadway'. The team from Reefton brought 'Pretty Good Behaviour', a play penned by Tim Hambleton, to life with an amazing set, fantastic acting and no shortage of jokes.
The play opened with the cast assembling the entire set in-front of the audience. ROARS 'off Broadway' have competed nationally with this play before and part of the contest is to assemble the set in under five minutes. This portion of the performance hooked the audience from the get-go and once the set was assembled, the story began.
'Pretty Good Behaviour' follows several characters whose stories take place in an experimental prison in a National Park. It’s under threat of closure as the inexperienced manager has been releasing prisoners for 'good behaviour' and now there are too few inmates for the place to be viable. Some of the prisoners are desperate to keep the prison open as they’ve hit upon various schemes which take full advantage of the natural surroundings. Meanwhile, a ministry official visits, intent on closing the facility, forcing staff and prisoners alike to co-operate in an all-out effort to keep the facility open.
From an overwhelmed and kindly manager and her well-meaning staff to the long-time prisoners and a new entrant, the cast delighted with their antics.
The set was creative and utilised wonderfully while the story flowed easily from one scene to the next. With a combination of lighting and sound, everything came together in a delightfully funny and clever play. It was simply delightful to hear the laughter from the audience as each joke landed with precision and when the show was over, the applause was deafening.
Afterwards, the cast and crew mingled with the audience to answer questions while kids were allowed to get up on stage and explore the dynamic set.
We were thrilled to host such a well put together show and especially to strengthen the coastal connection. Supporting local groups is an all important part of who we are so a very special thanks to Reefton ROARS 'off Broadway' for treating us to another terrific story by Tim Hambleton.
