Caravanserai: Luna Parc, 6 May 2023
What do you get when you combine three uber talented performer-writers who demonstrate better than solid comic timing, with a deep diving love for genre movies of the 80s, and broad farce? This. An utter delight that makes your cheeks ache from laughing in parts.
Every time Police Cops return to the Fringe with a new incarnation it’s a thrill ride of tightly choreographed dance moves, awesome slow-mo fights, and montages to a rocking soundtrack. You could easily just have fun spotting the film influences, which include (obviously) Star Wars, but also The Karate Kid, Back To the Future, some Dirty Dancing, and Terminator. That would be heaps of fun as a sidebar, before you even jump on board and strap in for their own tale of generational expectation, prophecy, and robot love. In space. Which of course means cashing in on every opportunity for space travel, bounty hunters, legacy vendettas, and shiny swimming cap outfits.
The affectionate swipes at tropes are done with the dew-eyed familiarity of true 80s devotees. This is low fi effects with super sharp coordination, and a cocky confidence that allows the lads to schedule in sections of improv too, with varying degrees of success but a bold honest enjoyment – which is utterly contagious. They ballroom dance together, flirt and bat an eye, and have no modesty in throwing out a bit of gratuitous semi-nudity too. Everything defers to the entertainment of the performance, and it shows.
Not everything lands as it might, but the shear volume of fun and quick-witted creativity to be found in Police Cops In Space easily allows for a few bits to fall by the wayside. It’s silly in the most sensible of ways, and another fine testimony to the building idea that these guys are repeatedly a safe and utterly nuts pair of hands to trust your evening’s entertainment to.
