Across three nights this week, Christchurch's favourite comedians The Court Jesters will be taking over pop-up arts festival Little Andromeda with their improvised medical comedy, Soapland Street.
Featuring a large team of Jesters playing a cast of doctors, nurses and evil twins in the spirit of New Zealand's favourite soap opera, The Court Theatre is collaborating with Little Andromeda for this three-night improv extravaganza.
"The Court was invited to collaborate with Little Andromeda and we jumped at the chance," says Chief Executive Barbara George. "We are keen to support them and share what The Court does with a wide range of audiences."
For The Court Jesters, who have been performing late-night comedy show Scared Scriptless for 29 years, Soapland Street is an opportunity to showcase a different format of improvised comedy.
Running for three nights, audiences can pick an evening that suits them, or attend all three performances to watch the story unfold, with discounted tickets available for binge deal tickets.
"Unlike Scared Scriptless, which is all short-form games, Soapland Street's format gives us an opportunity to develop stories and find out more about your favourite characters," says Programmes Manager Rachel Sears.
Audiences can expect hilarious twists on familiar soap-opera storylines, with implausibly complicated love affairs, evil twins and coma storylines assured.
Speaking about the collaboration, George says "The Court views Little Andromeda as a partner in bringing the stories of live theatre to our community and are very pleased to be part of their festival. We all know that we can achieve so much more if we all work together."
Giving a teaser of what audiences can expect, Sears promises, "Just like watching your favourite soap, there's going to be a cliff-hanger at the end of each night - so you need to come back to see what happens!"
Soapland Street runs for three nights only at Little Andromeda on the 10, 11, 12 October.
Scared Scriptless runs every Friday and Saturday night at 10:15pm.
Bookings: phone 03 963 0870 or visit iticket.co.nz
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