The Basement's Christmas fundraising tradition is as scruffy and silly as a present wrapped by toddlers using tinsel and a gluestick. This year, the kids gifting the hokiness - even more of it than usual - are playwrights Thomas Sainsbury and Chris Parker.
They are all at sea in long socks and Roman sandals, "putting the naughty into nautical", starring as "Tom" and "Chris" in their own shipboard comedy whodunit.
Every night, they offer up egregious puns, lots of leg and long-repressed memories of Kiwi culture (McDonald's Young Entertainers, anyone?). All perfectly suited to Sainsbury's great trademark deadpan New Zild accent.
The aim is quantity rather than quality of humour; the light, inoffensive jokes are more mindless than memorable, but their overwhelming number genuinely keep the laugh quotient high.
