Medagascar: Med Revue 2024 went off without a hitch. The three night show sold incredibly well and, beating the insular claims, not just to Med students! From August 1st until the 3rd, med students took a few hours break from their rigorous 16-hour-day study schedules to put on one hell of a show.
The impressive quantity of ticket sales over the first two days, paired with high demand for door sales, saw organisers opt for an increased capacity at the Friday show. Critic could make a joke here comparing this to the Med School itself in a jab about them cramming as many students in as possible, but that would spoil the good news. So we won’t. All profits were contributed to Camp Qualities, a non-profit effort to support children and families in their battle through cancer.
Much like the tried and true structure of the Capping Show, the show consisted of a range of independent skits, live music, and dance sequences. The smaller skits were intertwined with an overarching plot that followed a parodied storyline of DreamWorks' Madagascar echoing the med student experience. Critic Te Ārohi sent our finest BA reporter, equipped with the notes app and Google for the inevitable onslaught of jargon.
Review:
Despite what doctors might say, I do not have a medical bone in my body. As someone whose last foray into the sciences was in 2020 (I dropped physics after hearing that Covid would likely cancel the accompanying field trip) I feared I’d walk out without understanding a single joke. My qualms were settled surprisingly quickly, though, spotting the familiar faces of Communications and PPE peers dotted among future healthcare professionals and theatre kids in the crowd as I was ushered into the Teacher’s College Auditorium.
The crowd was greeted with a game quizzing us whether the term shown on the projector was a Pokémon, dinosaur or medical term: Lacune, Microceratus and Nincada. I'll let you guess which is which. At least they’re self-aware? Meanwhile, the live band played certified banger after banger. Stand-outs included their version of 'Can't Take My Eyes off You', and the impressive harmonies and high notes reached on 'Somebody to Love'.
The night stretched just over two and a half hours of runtime. Credit where credit is due: each scene felt immensely original and managed to get us roaring till finish (your post-town root can’t say the same). The show depicted a set of practising doctors (Alex, Melman, Gloria and Marty) who were sent to Gore by the Medical Council after nearly losing their licence to operate. An interruption in transit placed the ageing, egotistical doctors in the heart of North D where they partied it up with Julian, the King of Castle.
Yet it was the topical skits that were the heart of the show. Memorable moments (as in they’re branded in my brain) include the tales of pre-ejaculation man and the "why is there an audience in your rectum" scene. The second half began with an empowering sexy dance sequence to Rihanna's audacious 'S&M'. Who says med students don’t fuck? The scene came smack bang in the middle of Brat Winter. The feral energy captured on stage replicates how I imagined Charli XCX's birthday went down.
Other musical appearances came from the cast-made A cappella group called Stitch Perfect. Most notable was their version of the riff-off-esque 'I've Got the Magic in Me' which they parodied into ‘I've Got Buzz Lightyear in Me’. Med students apparently see a lot of x-ray footage of foreign bodies inside bodies. Watch out Sexytet, this group of newcomers might just give you a run for your money.
Despite the various attempts at universal relatability of the show, med students were ultimately the target audience on the night. There were a few times where only the medical members of the audience would abruptly burst out into hysterics. I assume these were inside jokes, but they were thankfully few and far between. I appreciated feeling included. The cast fought off the deep seeded sentiments of pretension and otherness from the rest of the uni by providing definitions to the fancy medical jargon whenever it was used. Lead actress Caitlyn Wickham (Gloria the hippo) expressed her excitement on this to me, saying, “It is really nice to see people outside of the med school coming in to see what we are working on."
But this didn't mean that OUMSA (Otago University Medical School Association) would halt their relentless anti-dentist rhetoric. Punches were thrown towards both Dentists – and Physios, actually – throughout the show. But to everyone’s shock, none were directed towards the lawyers in the house. The Society Of Otago University Law Students (SOULS) is currently building towards this year's Law Revue titled Lawrat (very nice). While Lawrat is rumoured to have some med-directed jabs up, law students in the audience were left utterly disappointed without beef to be had. Coyly, Caitlyn said, "They're not really on our radar." Oof.
Caitlyn Wickham estimated that, on top of her already packed schedule, she spent about 120 hours in rehearsal since practices began in March of this year. The directing team, however, began shaping the script shortly after last year's Med Revue. It was crunch-time in the weeks leading up to the show when the cast was needed every night, plus full days on the weekends according to Caitlyn. “It was a lot but it was so worth it," she concluded.