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Brighton Fringe 2009

Katy and Rach Make Stuff Up

Katy and Rach

Venue: Upstairs @ Three and Ten

Festival:


Low Down

Katy and Rach join forces to create a show that is completely improvised. It could be anything that pops into their heads at the time – in this case it was love around an ant farm as a protective shield…

 

Review

Improvisation shows are difficult to pull off in general – you have to listen very carefully to what your partner or group is giving you, you cannot block each other and no matter how silly the situation you have to portray is, you have to believe in it and put 100% into your performance. Katy and Rach most certainly did that.

It was obvious that they had a strong following in the audience as they were both greeted by cheers as they walked on. What followed was an hour of unadulterated fun and strong communication between the two women. If they had not reassured us at the beginning that what we were about to see was made up, we would not have believed it.

The action took place firstly from a living room with a home made ant farm in it with two very close friends talking about it. In a way they had chosen a difficult object to focus on first as one can only do so much with an ant farm, but suprisingly they made a lot out of it – especially rather fitting comments about using monopoly pieces as town buildings and hiding places as well as comments about how human ants are when you watch them closely. During that section there were a couple of times when they had dried up, but they were able to make that part of the show and move on as best as they could.

What we were to discover though was that the ant farm was a mask for something even bigger which they developed more as the show progressed and got everyone drawn in – Rach’s character Zoe hid behind the farm as she didn’t want to leave her security blanket to date one of her closest friends. Soon after that, we saw both girls switch to playing men in a bar (one of which was Steven – the man who is interested in Zoe), which was brilliantly done as it was slick, funny and the audience believed they were men by very subtle body language and behaviour. From here on in, the show got better and better! They not only played men, but switched to their original characters, played barmaids and somehow managed to prevent themselves from laughing as the characters became more daring.

The show was not only entertaining, but it was sensitive, had a realistic feel to it and was extremely enjoyable! What was especially good about it was the fact that both Katy and Rach had a wonderful connection and great energy between them and just went with the flow as well as give the show a really nice ending. It left us all on a very good high afterwards and you could tell that everyone, including Katy and Rach, really enjoyed themselves. They never present the same show though so they are worth seeing more than once.! You never know what treats are in store.

 

Published

Show Website

www.katyandrach.co.uk