THEATRE company Big Wow has hedged its bets with its latest show for Liverpool’s Unity.

Instead of creating just one production, duo Matt Rutter and Tim Lynskey came up with two ideas and tried them both out for a bit before deciding which one to run with.

“We came up with two different ideas for a new show and did 30 minutes of one and 40 minutes of another, just to see what people thought,” says Rutter, of Big Wow’s scratch performances at the Hope Place theatre last July.

“That’s been normal for us in the past couple of years, and the Unity really support us.

“It gives us a chance to see whether an idea works or not.”

Out went Numbstruck, about a man struck by lightning, and the idea they decided to take further was The Friendship Experiment.

“It’s about the friendship between two characters called Matt and Tim and two called Jeff and Steve,” says Rutter. “It’s like a buddy movie – but on stage. With the idea of friendship, we’re also considering the thing of what it’s like to be a small theatre company.

“It’s very much going back to stuff we did early on, full-on theatre. We want people to wonder if the show is improvised or not.”

The two Liverpool Hope University graduates set up Big Wow in 2002, influenced by other off-the-wall theatre companies such as London-based Ridiculusmus.

“We just brazenly want to entertain people so they have a good night and enjoy themselves,” says Rutter.

THE Friendship Experiment is at the Unity from January 14-16, 21-23 and 28-30.