improvisation

All Falls Down, VAULT Festival

by Laura Kressly

Storytelling – the simple kind where a small group of people sit in the dark and simply share wild and wonderful tales – is an inherent part of being human. In this instance, combining this instinct with improvisation, and audience interaction results in a story following a group of friends trying to find their way out of a plane crash. The audience is the group of friends, and Joe Strickland quietly narrates the set-up. Soon, Strickland introduces a chose-your-own-adventure type of moment that leads to many more. The concept is fun and the audience enthusiastically engages, but the execution raises questions about audience autonomy and the limits of improv.

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A Pissedmas Carol, Leicester Square Theatre

by Zahid Fayyaz

Shit-faced Showtime has returned to their London home, the Leicester Square Theatre, for their annual yuletide version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. The USP of this particular Christmas Carol, to distinguish it from the other versions across the country, is that one member of the cast is completely hammered and the rest of the case have to work around and incorporate their drunken ramblings into the show. The cast also incorporate a number of contemporary songs into the narrative, which occasionally do not work, though not at the fault of their singing talent.

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Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, Battersea Arts Centre

Review: Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, Battersea Arts Centre - Everything Theatre

by Romy Foster

It’s a wonder that Sleeping Trees have managed to put on a show for kids. Their adult productions are cheeky, provocative, silly and inappropriate but in Sleeping Beauty and the Beast they bring the fun for kids and adults alike in this partially improvised twist on two children’s classics.

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Fear Eats Life, Cockpit

by Diana Miranda

“Today you can get rid of your fear”, Strangers Like Me Collective promises. As the audience arrives at Fears Eat Life, premiering at the Voila! Europe Festival, they find a sheet of paper on each seat inviting them to write down what they’re most afraid of and throw it on stage. And so, this interactive cabaret show, written and directed by Timna Krenn, begins before the lights go down. To throw one’s fears away to the power of theatrical catharsis seems meaningful enough, and the prospect of having performers enacting them back to us in a dark comedy improv seems like something to look forward to.  

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Improvabunga, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

AUDIENCE REVIEWS: IMPROVABUNGA – MidlandsImprov.com

by Diana Miranda

How do you earn the spotlight for a musical thriller about spy kids facing deathly traps at an indoor trampoline park? Producers, take note of the title: Jump into death: the bounce back. It might be too specific a niche, but worry not, the solution is simple. Call Watch This Improv Troupe. 

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Notflix, VAULT Festival

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by Bryony Rae Taylor

Notflix is performed by an all-women musical improv troupe. They ask audiences to suggest a film which has not yet been made into a musical, so that they can make it into a musical – and then they make it into a musical.

The film on the night I am there is The Holiday, the one where Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz house swap and LOVE HAPPENS. You know the one.

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Our Man in Havana, VAULT Festival

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By Zahid Fayyaz

Spies Like Us Theatre have returned for one week with their award-winning show from 2017’s Edinburgh Fringe. A five-person adaptation of the Graham Greene satirical novel, this one-hour show follows the story of a local vacuum cleaner salesman pushed into working as a spy for MI6 in Cuba, Havana.

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Lord of the Game of the Ring of Thrones, VAULT Festival

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by Matthew McGregor-Morales

Magic birthrights, long-lost heirs and horrific “juicing” procedures: Hivemind’s one-night fantasy improv just about has it all. The team behind Edinburgh Fringe’s 2017 Playlight Robbery have brought their 2018 fantasy epic improv to London stages, and you can see they’ve done this (well, not exactly this) before.

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LGBTQFA, VAULT Festival

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by Amber Pathak

With nothing but a few chairs and the players’ brilliant minds, LGBTQFA keeps your sides hurting for days afterwards. Featuring the amazing, musical comedy sketch-duo Shelf, this is a two-show-in-one treat. It’s difficult to find a comedy show exposing serious issues without feeling forced, yet this is exactly what the evening provides – a hilariously woke opener from Shelf with some killer tunes, followed by a fully-improvised show by the Free Association.

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