Captaining the RSC team of knaves was "Paul Jesson", and his team of reprobates was made up of "Peter Egan, Guy Henry, and Siobhan Redmond. The RNT team was captained by that infamous scallywag Captain Hook, or as he is more commonly known at the RNT, Sir Ian McKellen. His crew of shipwrecked pirates was made up of "Jenny Agutter", Clive Rowe and Simon Russell Beale.

Emma Freud was Mistress of the Questions, and also the person who made up the rules, and make them up she did. However, to be fair to her she was impartial to both teams applying her anarchical rules equally to the RSC and the RNT.

Henry Goodman was master of the scoreboard. Considering Henry Goodman played the loveable rogue "Nathan Detroit" earlier this year in the RNT production of 'Guys and Dolls' one may have thought he would prove to be slightly bias, well he was, but not to the RNT!

Before the first question was asked, Ian McKellen presented the Mistress with a bag of chocolates and praised her good looks, charming personality and her wise and impartial judgement. McKellen's team was immediately rewarded with 5 points! Obviously the RSC are an innocent and naive crowd as they came along with no such bribe. However, their quick-witted captain Paul Jesson, presented the Mistress with a twenty pound note, this quickly disappeared in an article of her clothing, and was repaid with a massive ten points.

Despite, the light-hearted nature of the quiz, serious questions were asked, and some were even answered, if not by the teams then by members of the audience.

There were simple Question & Answer sessions based around 1997 theatre productions that took place in London. This led to a complaint from Siobhan Redmond of the RSC that the quiz was biased against them as they had spent most of their time out of London at Stratford upon Avon! However, when asked to name the Spice Girls, Siobhan Redmond reeled off not only their pop names but also the first names of each one. Certain proof, if any was needed, that too much time in Stratford upon Avon does great harm to one's sense of culture.

There were also props from different shows and the teams had to name the production the prop was used in. One of these props diminished with the assistance of Clive Rowe. A ham and mustard sandwich was presented as a prop used in a RSC production. This was passed around the RNT team for them to name the production in which the prop was used. However, when Clive Rowe passed the prop to Ian McKellen a large section of the sandwich was missing with telling teeth marks, proof that someone had taken a bite! Due to the crumbs around Clive Rowe's mouth it was obvious who had committed the deed. Consequently, Clive Rowe was asked to give a short rendition of his famous Guys & Dolls showstopper "Rocking the Boat".

Also when another prop, this time a dress, from a RSC production was shown to the RNT team, Simon Russell Beale claiming short-sightedness left his seat for a closer look. Ian McKellen was heard telling him "Look to see if there is a label", however, the Mistress was having none of it and had the actor return to his seat.

When the RSC were presented with a prop from a show they could not recognise Henry Goodman, Master of the Scoreboard, came to their rescue. "Look 'Closer' he was heard to whisper. Which was a big clue, considering the prop was from the play 'Closer'!

The RNT won the day, but I don't think it was because of the chocolates that Ian Mckellen presented to Emma Freud. The reason for concluding this was because after the quiz was finished and people where leaving I noticed Sir Ian McKellen surreptitious reclaiming the chocolates he had earlier so generously proffered! Maybe Captain Hook wanted the chocolates to feed to the crocodile in an attempt to save himself from being gobbled up in the evening's performance of Peter Pan.

The quiz was great fun and at the price of only 3:50 UKP a great bargain too. You could see that the audience had a good time and the two teams certainly did. I will be there next year. Do go if you enjoy tongue in cheek humour with lots of hidden innuendoes.

(Alan Bird)