Two years and two months after being shut down due to the pandemic, 'Speed: The Movie, The Play' is back at the Brisbane Comedy Festival (BCF).
It's a shameless, comedic homage to the iconic, fast-paced 1994 action thriller, 'Speed', a film proving once and for all that all the best drama happens on public transport.
Need a bit of catching up? Well, there's a bomb on a bus, and if the bus drops below 50 miles per hour, it'll blow up. Now, imagine all the craziness and chaos of a situation like this, in a real-life bus, parked outside a theatre. That's 'Speed: The Movie, The Play'.
We chat with Act React’s Natalie Bochenski about the return of Brisbane’s favourite bus-based comedy.
Congratulations on being back at the Powerhouse! You must be looking forward to the first full BCF since 2020.
Words can’t express just how excited we all are. The show was going gangbusters and we’d even extended our season when COVID-19 shut it down in 2020. Act React is only a small company, and we still lost $20,000 from that cancellation. But what do you do? Many had it so much worse.
Did you always want to bring it back?
Always. We began this show in 2015 at BCF, so Brisbane Powerhouse really is its spiritual home. The 2020 season marked five years since it had been performed in Brisbane, and we brought it back because audiences were calling for its return. So many people have told us they had tickets to the 2020 season but were refunded due to lockdown. It’s a great boost to know that there is still such an appetite for the show - obviously the live performance sector has been battered by the pandemic.
Tell readers again what the show is about.
'Speed: The Movie, The Play' is a loving comedic homage to the 1994 action thriller 'Speed', starring Keanu Reeves, about a terrorist threatening to blow up a bus if it drops below 50 miles per hour. The audience are the passengers on the bus, and have to help Keanu solve problems to stop the bomb exploding. It’s immersive, silly and a bunch of fun. I always like to say it’s like a rollercoaster - jokes happen so fast you barely have time to take them in before the next one comes at you!
It’s a deliberately low-fi affair too, isn’t it?
And how! We love creating big budget special effects on a shoestring budget. We go through a tremendous amount of corflute, cloth tape, plastic ties, spray paint, sponges, party poppers and more on this show. Plus there’s some of our more creative and retro equipment like our overhead projector from the ‘80s, mannequins and various body parts. The only non-budget item is the bus itself, which is a beautiful 1970 Leyland Panther. Part of the delight of the show for audience members is getting to sit in such a gorgeous heritage bus, and as always we are thrilled to partner with the not-for-profit Queensland Omnibus and Coach Society to use their gorgeous vehicle.
What next for Act React?
The last couple of years have been about surviving, as every time we think we’ve turned a corner, there’s been another setback, such as the Omicron variant and the SE Queensland floods, both of which have affected audiences and venues. Hopefully we’ll be able to turn our attention towards creating new stuff, and taking works back on tour. The big issues facing us are probably similar across the industry – getting people keen to see live shows again, as well as juggling rising inflation and venues with backlogs of postponed and rescheduled shows. So if you come to any show at the BCF, you’re doing so much more than you know to support the creative sector!
'Speed: The Movie, The Play' runs from 5-29 May at Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Comedy Festival).
