In ‘Hamlet’, the Bard’s Prince of Denmark famously said, ‘the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King’. For the performers in the Theatresports Cranston Cup Grand Final at the Enmore Theatre playing, big time, was the only thing with the sole aim being to give the audience a great time!

Six teams competed to be the New South Wales State Champions; ‘All The Single Ladies’ featuring Grant Davies, Scott Hall- Watson, Jay Laga’aia, Jane Simmons, ‘Tri-State Ghost Hunters’ featuring Bridie Connell, Simon Greiner and Alex Lee, ‘The National Average League All-Stars’ featuring Cale Bain, David Callan, and Monique Dykstra, ‘The Swinging Independents’ featuring Tom Dunstan, Michael Gregory, Steve Klimmens and Marko Mustac, ‘Steen’ featuring Steen Raskopoulos, Carlo Ritchie and Susie Youssef, and ‘Bavaria’s Wurst’ featuring Amanda Buckley, Steve Lynch and Jon Williams.

As the audience walked in to take seats, hip DJ Tom Lowndes kept the audience entertained with his quirky music selection. The final of the Cranston Cup, billed as the super bowl of improvised comedy, kick-started with the RG Dance group performing a great cheerleader number, and then the hosts, the Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Lisa Ricketts, appeared on stage, dressed in gridiron outfits.

Then it was show-time with the six teams performing often outrageous impros to see who would come out on top. All the teams had the help of muso Penny Biggins on keyboards who did an on the spot score to each scene. Five judges, Rebecca De Unamuno, Mark Gambine, Brent Hill, John Knowles and Lyn Pierse, sitting together in the body of the audience, scored each scene, with impros Geoff Bartlett keeping the tally and announcing the final results.

‘Bavaria’s Wurst’, the team of Amanda Buckley, Steve Lynch and Jon Williams, took out the night and now move on to compete in the National Championship that will take place as part of the 2011 Sydney Comedy Festival in April next year.