Police Cops In Space

After their award-winning Police Cops: The Musical, the zany trio of Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson and Tom Roe return with another slice of law enforcement silliness in the form of (drum roll) Police Cops In Space.

The show has been around since 2017 and lifts off on its current run within the Underbelly Festival’s Spiegeltent. More used to seeing circus and cabaret performed in the round, the venue’s awkward transformation into a black box theatre and the gnarly sightlines means that there is less than meets the eye here. As my grandmother said, grab your silver linings where you can get them.

It’s not that this play lacks a plot. Quite the opposite: much of the hour-long show is spent bouncing from one revelation to another as we travel across the galaxy in search of a raison d'être. We’re not sure what the collective noun for cliches is but here’s an idea of what to expect: “After his father is killed by an evil robot, Sammy Johnson, the last Police Cop in the universe, blasts off in an unmanned escape pod. Now on a distant planet, Sammy must team up with Alien fighter pilot Ranger and his trusty Cyborg C9 as they embark on an intergalactic adventure across the galaxy to find Earth, avenge his father and become the best damn Police Cop in space.” If this sounds to you like a half-baked sci-fi sequel to David Sandberg’s excellent Kung Fury then rest assured you’re in good company.

With twists that are less M. Night Shyamalan, more overcooked fusilli, we roll through underwritten scenes that serve as the soggy underpinning for hacky jokes, sloppy spoofing and hammy acting. All three actors don multiple hats playing heroes, villains and naff robots as they make the best of the “every expense spared” set design and props to pump life into a script that still - seven years on - somehow sounds like a work very much in progress.

Quite who this show is aimed at is a bit of a mystery. On the one hand, the language and tone is far from family friendly. Homo-erotic humour that hasn’t raised a snigger in adult company since Round The Horne folds in tired wink-wink gags and a Terminator homage in nothing but spangly silver briefs. It has lashing of slapstick and knockabout comedy but it is dull and uninspired and pales next to the likes of Spymonkey. On the other, the childish antics raised genuine belly laughs in the younger members of the press night audience. A prime example of something which is more suited to a Fringe slot than a circus tent, the cosmic japery of this episode of Police Cops is not so much Spaceballs as just, well, space balls.

Police Cops In Space continues at Udderbelly Festival until 18 August.