Scrabble Unscripted is a show where the worlds of Scrabble and Impro collide. Hosted that evening by Steve Lynch, we were treated to a rib-tickling hour of entertainment where anything could happen.
Two guest Scrabble players broke out the tiles and played a game to the side of the stage. On the night that I attended we witnessed the skills of NSW’s sixth ranked player, Chris May and Heath Franklin of “Ronnie Johns Half Hour” fame. If you came to the show looking for some deathly serious Scrabble playing you will be a little disappointed. There is no score keeping, thus no clear winner is declared and Heath took several liberties with his word creations, coming up with some unique words that had the Scrabble Nazis’ mouths agape.
As the game played out, our improvisers would regularly look to the board for a word or two of inspiration that would be the basis of a short scene. Our cast on that evening included another of the Ronnie Johns alumni, Jordan Raskopoulos.
After a brief warm up with some audience suggestions, the team looked to the board. The word “Tofu” was the basis of a scene about a woman’s cooking disaster for her Asian husband and a mysterious stranger. Adding love to the horrendous recipe gave the story a happy ending complete with racial stereotyping and the inspired quoting of the song “Turning Japanese”.
The word “En” appeared on the board which as the Scrabble Hardcore (who know all of the two letter words) pointed out, was a unit of measure in the printing trade (we certainly learned as well as laughed!). Armed with this information, a priceless scene was performed in which the print format of a newspaper created by a pair of conjoined twins caused trouble for a Tyrannosaurus Rex descendant.
“Tux” and “Iraq” inspired a story in which a man introduced his Iraqi fiance to his hardcore military father. It very quickly descended into very un PC territory with all the racist stereotypical statements being thrown about, which had both the cast and audience in hysterics.
With the Heath Franklin original “Banolo” (he claimed that it was an Italian car), the improvisers produced a brilliant scene in which a clearly out-equipped Banolo driver had a street race with some Hoons and somehow snatched the victory.
The words “Nil” and “Dam” were used in a Shakespearean item that featured much innuendo and mention of moisture and lubrication. “Vino” set in motion a Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where the singing of Disney movie tunes helped with sobriety. A Charlie’s Angels type story about motorcycle thieves came from the word “Vice” where they somehow managed to squeeze in “Bearj”, another of Heath’s creations. To round out the show the words “Dough” and “Hole” were plucked from the board, thus the song “There’s a hole in my dough” was created with each of the cast contributing an amusing verse.
It was a top show of improvised madness. The use of the Scrabble board let the audience off the hook from providing suggestions (although plenty of discussion over “En”!), letting us all sit back and take in the unpredictable action. With a rotating cast and many different guest players, each show is guaranteed to be a unique hour of fun.
Visit Scabble Unscripted for booking information and nightly lineups.