[Ad- gifted experience]Â We’ve gone to improve theatre before, but Perfect Show for Rachel is something that takes aspects of improve, but is so much more than that. Rachel is the director of the show, with a big panel full of buttons. These buttons trigger different scenes or mini-games, that the rest of the actors on the stage then need to act out – until Rachel pushes another one. Each show is unique, depending on Rachel’s mood, but the show isn’t put together to entertain us. It’s put together to entertain Rachel.
Rachel is a learning-disabled individual who finds all of this quite funny! When we first got there, the stage was full of people dancing and signing along to the songs that were being sung. When it started, Rachel’s sister Flo gave a big introduction on how this entire play works. There are some interesting aspects of the stage; a TV screen where we can see Rachel’s face, a panel next to it where we could see words typed out if Rachel speaks, and about the buttons on the panel. There are also a bunch of words that appear on the walls, for some of the mini-games, but otherwise everything is signed in BSL.
Rachel’s Perfect Show, for the one that Amelia and I attended, had a ton of very funny moments. Rachel had a bedtime button that she used three times, getting two people up on stage to go to sleep and giving one person in the crowd a pillow and blanket to go to sleep with. She also pushed the Fleur Dates a Boy button three times, cutting off the mini-game the first time it was played for a dance party break, then resuming it later when she felt the need to do so. This bit had Fleur and a random audience member trying to act out a first day. It was very, very silly and the second audience member made us all laugh out loud so much – they both were really good!
There is a lot of interaction from the audience in Rachel’s Perfect Show; from shouting out answers to laughing out loud… one person was given a bag in case Rachel pushed a button for a bag performance, which she did, and they had to fight Flo with the bag, basically. There was an entire fight scene and a big song about one guy getting a job. It’s just random, purely entertaining, and some bits are just so for Rachel. I particularly loved the the snack-related dance that resulted in Rachel getting to pick a snack. Amelia’s favorite bit was Rachel telling one of the sleeping people (who she did know) to lay back down and stay asleep, on stage, when he tried to get up.
Perfect Show for Rachel is just a fantastic, slightly improve-slightly god-controlling-a-bunch-of-actors show that just feels unlike anything we’ve ever watched. And, it’s a lot of fun. Well worth seeing again and again (there were so many buttons we didn’t get to see!).
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!