Theatre week full of surprises, shock, tears and giggles

Unathi believes that the auditions tour brought out a diverse group of people and therefore presented an interesting theatre week, while Randall thought his fellow judges were too lenient on giving out tickets.

“Let's hope that (the contestants with) potential take the next step otherwise there will be some extremely unhappy people,” he said.

With the green, red and blue chairs placed out, contestants were each sent to a specific chair colour based on their performance. But to confuse them even more, the red chair contestants were further divided between blue and green, sending the green chair occupants home and saving the blue. Day one of theatre week saw 47 contestants go home.

The next step was the group challenge which was the true test of talent. Twelve groups of four were formed and the selection of songs was done.

Theatre week which is known for surprises, pulled one over on the contestants by announcing their performances as a sing-off, two against two.

“With the group round, the aim is to see if our contestants can handle the pressure. Usually, when it is groups of three or four, contestants can hide behind the others in the team... but this time it is duets, there is no place to hide,” said Unathi.

Exhaustion and nerves resulted in some forgetting their lyrics and emotions rising.

Another contestant, who couldn't handle the pressure, Anele, went AWOL during rehearsals and left his partner stranded.

Performance day was proof of how some succumbed to the pressure with Anele and his partner being eliminated along with the first performing acts Karen, Viwo, Noxolo and Brandon, all being sent home.

The bad news didn't end there, as Sandile, Thembelihle, Ndumi, Tumi and Serrato and Philisiwe who sacrificed school for the competition were also eliminated. Londy, Mthandeni, Dineo and Victor's performances got Unathi and Somizi in stitches and tears because of how south their performances went.