What We're Watching - Police Cops in Space aka Hush Hush

Hush Hush aka Police Cops in Space

After an interest pricking anti-marketting campaign (‘Don’t Come. You Are NOT Welcome’ was about the only blurb on the Lowry website) and being shown a video of two actresses (who were not in the show) creepily shooing us away, but reminding us we had to pay what we thought the show was worth on the way out, I am sure that a fair proportion of the audience had no clue what they were about to see. My son even made us move from the front row because the video had spooked him so much (and me behind the tallest widest man in the auditorium – thanks son!)

What we were treated to was The Pretend Men’s creation, Police Cops in Space (which my research has uncovered, is a sequel to Police Cops. It’s a mad cap romp through the far future, inspired by every sci-fi film from my youth (Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Terminator, Arena, I lost count!). Three energetic twenty-something blokes, who are annoyingly good-looking and annoyingly buff (wait till you’re 40 lads) play about 10 parts each in a buddy cop movie set in space.

The sparse stage contains two chairs and lots of boxes of manky props and costumes. But boy, do they use them well, and the technicians deserve applause as it is tightly packed with music, sound effects, black-outs and spot lights creating new worlds before our eyes. There are some very effective images created, the motorbike and the warp speed requiring a special mention.

The jokes come as thick and fast as the costume changes, but the biggest laughs come when the actors mess up or corpse. I am sure some of these slip ups will have been written into the script, but they are vital in a show such as this. As in our Murder Mysteries, if the audience can see the people on stage are enjoying themselves, they’ll be laughing as well. And the enjoyment is more than obvious in these three.

The show, which we are told is a work in progress (but I’d leave it as it is guys!) is off to Edinburgh, but the boys are back at the Lowry in October. But don’t come….