THE SABOTEUR Comes to The Butterfly Club

Critically acclaimed theatre company Jetpack Theatre Collective (Pea Green Boat, Art Heist) is bringing The Saboteur, the award-winning improvisation comedy show, to The Butterfly Club in Melbourne 20-25 March.

In this popular experience which is part improv comedy show, part Whodunnit, part reality tv show and part social strategy game, a small cast of improvisers are given a series of improv games and scenes to play. However, one of the players is secretly designated as the Saboteur before the show starts. It is the job of the Saboteur to try and ruin the show by improvising badly - without getting caught.

Nobody else on stage, or in the audience, knows who the Saboteur is. As the scenes progress, the audience and players are surveyed about who they think is the Saboteur through a website. Players are eliminated from the show one by one, based on their ability to correctly identify the Saboteur and their actions.

"We've toured The Saboteur to so many cities now, and it's always a riot," said Jim Fishwick, founder of Jetpack Theatre Collective and creator of The Saboteur. "Our comedians love playing it, because it's an invitation to do one of the things they're not supposed to do on stage. Audiences really get involved in the suspense and the suspicion of it too. The show is a love letter to reality TV shows like Survivor or The Mole, or social deduction games like Among Us or Werewolf, and people seem to enjoy that aspect of the show as much as the comedy. I'm endlessly fascinated by the shifting social dynamics of people trusting each other, betraying each other, trying to read each other, accusing each other. It's delicious."

The show premiered at the New Zealand Improv Festival 2019, where it won Outstanding Show, before short runs in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. Years in the making, The Saboteur's unique format invites discussion and questioning about the nature of improv, while also delivering a very silly and fun experience. This is for the lovers of comedy but is also accessible for anyone looking for a fun, slightly offbeat night out.

Creator and director Jim Fishwick is a champion improviser, and for this season has assembled a team of exceptional improvisers to join them onstage. With sound design by Bryce Halliday (ABC's Snowball, Sport for Jove's Antigone), the team behind The Saboteur are at the top of their game.

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