This year’s capping show, entitled Capocalypse, opened May 9 to packed crowds at the Teachers’ College Auditorium. Organised by OUSA, the show takes place annually to coincide with Otago’s graduation ceremonies and will run this year until May 19.
The Capping Show is notorious for its offensive humour and incorporation of topical issues, and 2012’s performance is set to be no exception. Co-Director Aaron Mayes warned students, “You can’t come and expect not to be offended.”
“It’s a really funny line-up this year, with the main cast dealing with Prime Minister Ron Key’s ideas on how to save the economy from the ‘Capocalypse’ predicted by the Mayans for 2012,” Aaron Mayes said. “We’ve picked a load of great sketches, song parodies and videos to add to the crowd favourites.”
Approximately 60 students from the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic auditioned for the show in early March, with 16 students being selected to form the main cast. Students involved claim to have balanced up to 60-hours of rehearsal a week on top of their studies.
As hoped for by the cast, last Wednesday’s opening night was a near sell-out performance and, according to one cast member, “it went down like a sex-powered rocket ship.” One audience member described the show as “hectic and confrontational,” but thankfully she showed no signs of permanent scarring.
The Capping Show began in 1894 and is the world’s second-longest-running student revue, beaten only by Cambridge University’s Footlights. However it does take the title of longest continuously-running student revue, due to other universities halting their performances during WWI and WWII. Given that Footlights’s alumni includes three of the six members of Monty Python, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Peter Cook and Sacha Baron Cohen, among many other illustrious names, the Capping Show clearly needs to claim whatever victories it can.
Student Revue offends all, entertains some
