‘Silly but impressive’
With improv becoming more and more popular as an art form, creatives are pushed to find ever engaging ways to evolve the trope. This time it’s a cast of quick thinking Shakespeare buffs who have taken on the challenge.
On entry audience members are given a small ping pong ball with a Shakepearesque word written on it, its purpose revealed in the opening moments of the show. To ‘pick’ the themes of tonight’s performance audience members are invited to chuck the balls into the girls britches and the successful balls will be used to determine the show.
Nobility
Gloves
Revenge
Dance
And with one last audience interaction:
Lovers
At the start the cast were stumbling over the archaic language, however cooly and confidently addressed the issue and played it into the show – a smart choice. The cast of Tom Wilkinson, Daniel South and Octavia Gilmore adeptly led the audience on a merry jape with multi-roling, cross dressing, murder and merriment for the next hour.
All were well seasoned and clearly on their game, even if corpsing did happen! Grumbles could come from the feeling that the theme is potentially a trope that they had done many times – the initial scenes being almost immediately prepared. Additionally the britches and skirts were almost so overworn that they became a distraction to the wonderful improv going on – perhaps some updated costumes would better serve the performers.
Overall, as with much improv it was a delightful hour of entertainment but with no real depth.