Review by Rebecca Lynne of “Servitude” Presented by Pigasus Productions
Pigasus Productions brings West End an easy-going afternoon of funny and familiar customer service stories turned into shared laughs and whacky improv skits.
Before the show, audience members were asked to share customer service (horror) stories to be used as inspiration for the improv show. Each audience memeber that shared a story received a very cute button (much like the one shown in the promo photo below) to proudly display their name on their chest so everyone would know whose story was being told. After a brief introduction and Welcome to Country from the host, Patrick Doolan, the show began! The group would begin each skit with Doolan reading out one of these stories and highlighting an aspect the skit would need to include. For instance, after sharing an audience member’s spooky story about delivering pizza to a seemingly abandoned house, Doolan challenged the group to do a show inspired by the story focusing on the phrase “spooky pizza”. What followed was a bittersweet story about a person delivering pizza (Sabina Nowak) to a zombie (Noelle Greenwood). The zombie persuades the person to stay, saying they just want someone to talk to and the pair form a fast friendship. Nowak says she feels really connected to the zombie, as if she’s seeing herself inside the other… likely due to the zombie eating all her limbs during their conversation.
Sabina Nowak was both the producer and a performer for the show. As a performer, she did a wonderful job of coming up with story ideas. After each prompt, Nowak seemed to instantly come up with a creative idea, taking the initiative to jump in and start the scene off with the group. Yet, she doesn’t try to hog the spotlight, often opting to offer her teammates a chance to start a scene instead.
Noelle Greenwood brought a wonderful liveliness and energy to the show. With great enthusiasm, Greenwood would jump in, change her voice, and fearlessly contort herself to characterise anything from a spooky old zombie to a bratty little girl. Her over-the-top acting and wonderfully expressive face really hammed up her scenes and added an extra level of hilarity to their otherwise already funny skits.
Michael Jell has a great sense of humour. Although he seemed to shy away from the spotlight, Jell performed harmoniously with his teammates suggestions. He reacted intuitively, knowing when to jump in as a new character to help flesh out a scene, or add an interesting twist to a story.
Throughout the show, Doolan had a great sense of timing. He knows how to move a scene a long with time-skips, or when it’s time to end a scene completely. It really is an art to know when you’ve squeezed all you can get from an idea, or when cutting to a different location or time can add another level of hilarity to a skit; and Doolan does it well.
Clearly the group get along well, as throughout the show they were friendly and supportive of any and every idea put forth. They work well as team, feeding off each other to create a scene that not only flows plot wise, but was also genuinely funny to watch. The group seemed to have a great time putting on the show as they clearly love improv and enjoy performing together. Their joy was infectious and made for a fun and entertaining show to watch.
Just as the performers had great comradery, the audience certainly contributed to the supportive environment. The audience seemed to be largely made up of friends and family of the performers, giving an enthusiastic applause to every skit and laughing along to every joke. Typical of improv shows, it was a very casual affair, with the performers focused on having fun and sharing a good joke. However, it was perhaps a bit too casual as they had overlooked the audience perspective. Many of the seats were either at awkward angles or tucked in behind trees, and the performers struggled to compete with the ambient sounds of the Sunday traffic driving past on busy Vulture Street.
Upon arrival, each audience member is given a coupon for a free beverage to have during the show as well as a 15% off coupon for return customers. Since the team were still preparing for the performance, I ordered my drink and a meal to go alongside it. It was delightful incentive to support the venue. However, as much as I enjoy drinking and snacking while watching a show, the café waitstaff became a constant interruption. The staff who took the initial orders opted to only get a name and note that they were attending the show. So, left without any other discernible identifiers, the waitstaff ended up wandering around asking each customer if whatever they were holding was theirs, even while a scene was playing out.
Verdict: Join this friendly group of improv enthusiasts for an afternoon cuppa and enjoy a light-hearted show about the nightmares of customer service.
Audience information: Showtime is half an hour, but I recommend arriving at least a half-hour early to order food and grab a good table towards the front of the area. The show is directed outward towards the back gate, so sitting at the sides leads to a poor view and sitting too far back you’ll be too close to the traffic and struggle to hear anything. There are stairs to access the performance area, however I saw a back gate that could be opened to allow for wheelchair access. Audience discretion is advised, please contact the venue and organisers for further accessibility details. West Village Car Park (access via Mollison St) has free parking up to 2 hours. P.S. bring a jacket as the concrete building nearby can make the shady areas quite cold.
When: 15 – 29 May 2022 (season over)
Where: Vulture St. Espresso – 85 Vulture St, West End, Brisbane QLD
Cost: $20 per person
The reviewer attended the show on the 29th which was a postponement of the original first show date on the 15th (postponed due to torrential rain and flood risk in Brisbane).
