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Please Go Hop! Director: Sam Haren/Ingrid Voorent Fowlers Live, Season closed Were you a child of the 'eighties? That tasteless decade of BMX bikes, big hair and oversized pastel coloured slogan emblazoned T-shirts and leg warmers. The films, in retrospect were largely really bad and the music worse, but all in all life was pretty good if you were a kid growing up. And while your parents were still hung-over from the 'sixties and your older siblings mercilessly defended the 'seventies, you happily moon-walked through life without a care in the world totally unaware of that your Tetris built utopia was just about to implode under the weight of its own economic excess. Kathy, Cam, Amber, Alirio, Paul and David were there; and by devising a giant board game played out in four parts and using themselves as the tokens to move across the squares, they take us back, recalling their prepubescent experiences and pitting their wits against one another in a series of bizarre music and movie trivia based challenges. 'Please Go Hop!' is almost biblical, going back to the genesis of the generation of geeks, a flashback nightmare that necessitates the nerdy nous of Trivial Pursuit and the fast thinking energy of theatre sports. Guided by a complex, ever changing set of rules which don't immediately make sense, the players are kept strictly in check by game-master Daniel Koerner. They are given Jedi-like powers using Slinkies, Rubik's Cubes, Whistle-Pops, lunch boxes and anything else that's equally tacky that they pick up along the way, as well as gaining further energy by being magically transformed into such characters as Ronald Reagan, Michael Jackson and Bernie (the weekend dead guy), Pac Man, Sydney's Centrepoint Tower, Darth Vader and The Karate Kid; the game becoming increasingly entwined and funnier with each turn. Yet, for all the onstage circa-silliness there's also a lot of soul searching to be found as they tell of some of the more regretful and crueller memories from their childhood days. Mind you, this just adds to the ridicule. Physically there are times that are absolutely exhausting, especially in the final two rounds. During the third round, players challenge one another to 'slap-fests', where they attempt to put forward their arguments to why their favourite 'eighties film is better than their opponent's while all the time swiping out at each other (this night 'Ferris Bueller...', 'The Neverending Story' and 'Top Gun' featured highly). Or try having three vodka shots while wearing up to ten brand name T-shirts and a parachute jacket, then, with your track suits pants around your ankles, tell everyone about how embarrassing it was to lose your virginity. This is something I'm sure poor Cam isn't too keen to repeat. And that's the nature of this game, in that anything can happen and no two events can ever be the same. The fourth (elimination) round may be the quickest (all up the game takes around four hours to complete with breaks in between each part), but it's here that the now fully bushed contestants are at their most vulnerable, having to tackle Jason Voorhees as he menaces the schoolyard and a gruelling (extremely clever and hilarious) game of Story-Twister. One by one players are ousted until an eventual winner emerges. 'Please Go Hop!' is one of the most original shows I've ever seen, and amongst the most fun. While fours hours may seem a long time, believe me it really does fly with the use of plenty of dance beats and movie sound bytes. And just like the 'eighties, this show will be well truly etched into your psyche forever.  |
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