MICF 2010: PROPHECY OF THE QUANTUM CHILD

Local comedy troupe Vigilantelope wowed audiences in 2009 with their exuberant, pun-filled Tale of the Golden Lease, a clever series of sketches and 80s-style dance routines constructed around a fantastically improbable McGuffin-driven plot. Last year’s show concerned time travel, an epic chase and hell hounds. This year’s show features time travel, an epic chase and a marauding cyborg army. See where I’m going with this?

Prophecy of the Quantum Child features many of the elements Vigilantelope used so successfully in their first production, but like a Hollywood sequel, the second time around it all feels slightly stale. It’s also undercooked; more development is needed to speed up the story and cut the weaker gags. Nonetheless, audiences unfamiliar with Vigilantelope’s shtick should be entertained, though not challenged, by this science fiction confectionary of wordplay, warring tribes, killer cyborgs and a doesn’t matter hole (like a black hole, but worse).

Three stars

Trades Hall until April 4
Tue-Sat 9.30pm, Sun 8.30pm
$16 - $21

This review first appeared in The Age on Monday April 5.