Watch This ends a successful year of 48 hour productions with Monsters Inc

They might have kept us waiting for nearly an hour, but the last 48 hour production of the year was a full house.

Last Sunday night, the Guild Underground opened its doors to the world of Monstropolis, with Euan Codrington’s rendition of the much loved Pixar animation Monsters, Inc.

Produced by Benedict Churchus and Mary Davies, the audience gave more laughter to the scream canisters than could have ever been expected. The Scream Extractor was just as good as Jurassic Park’s T-Rex earlier this year, and the cast used the Underground well. The slow motion monsters’ march, who entered from the back and used overhead speakers, was one of the best moments in the production.

Our favourite moment of the production was the door changing sequence at the end. They used this sequence to reenact comic scenes, such as the Meth Lab from Breaking Bad, the moment DiCaprio drops his totem in Inception, and the scene where the four Pevensie children enter Narnia. The monsters entering these scenes was not only comical, but proved the strength of the script.

However, the costumes were inconsistent in places, as they ranged from spectacularly creative outfits from characters such as Rex, the Abominable Snowman, and Waternoose, to those costumes which did not exactly scream monster – we would have loved to have seen a fluffier Sully. Characterisations were strong across the whole cast, making up for any lack of crazy monster attire.

Will Jackson’s camp depiction of the big boss Waternoose and buoyant physicality was highly entertaining, as was Hannah Sharp’s imitation of Rex from Toy Story which won much love from the audience. Annie O’Brien gave an adorable portrayal of Boo, while Anthony Keen and Kieran Hayes delivered brilliant performances of her two protectors Sully and Mike Wazowski.

Hayes was on point with his witty and inappropriate one-liners, which the audience took extremely well. Randall’s serpentine physicality was especially creepy and great vocal impressions were delivered by Lucy Cheetham, who played Celia, and Andrew Wilson in his role as Waxford.

Some costumes were better than others

And where would a 48 hour be without its share of comedy duos. Wilson and Matt McConnell delivered a fantastic sketch of Gordon Ramsay and his chef, with Wilson controlling his own swear buzzer noise. Oliver Corrigan and Chris Conway, who played the two cleaners, offered some light PG humour as Sully’s biggest fans. The star performance was delivered by Clare Horrigan, who nailed Roz’s characterisation down to a T.

What this production can certainly count on is unity from the cast and production team as a whole, although it seemed to lack that distinct sharpness in wit. The 48 hour King Jake Williams triumphantly left his last 48 hour production with vigour in his various roles. As always, the hope is next year’s 48 hour productions live up to the talent produced from this past year.

Photography courtesy of Alba Cove.