The Improvised Play is a comedy show entirely made up on the spot with Charlie Kemp and Lola-Rose Maxwell taking direction from the audience to create the play. We sat down with Lola-Rose Maxwell ahead of the show’s opening date on the 5th March.
What’s the most bizarre character or role you’ve had to portray based on an audience suggestion?
What a great question! I remember once playing a party planner’s Dad that had made himself into a huge pizza to make his son proud, it absolutely made sense at the time. Luckily that scene only lasted 2 minutes, for The Improvised Play we try to play more grounded characters so we can delve into them and find the comedy from the truth, rather than a quick gag.
Can you share a funny or memorable moment when the audience’s suggestion took the storyline in a completely unexpected direction?
The audience’s suggestions are the absolute anchor of this show which means the direction is always unexpected. Just last week we got the suggestion of my Halifax (the bank and town) in the 1950s so started the scene with our characters opening the first ever Halifax branch trying to make it successful. It ended with the characters creating a blood sacrifice to the devil so the bank would prevail. Turns out that’s why Halifax is still going…
How do you keep a straight face when the audience suggests something outrageous that you have to act out?
BORING ANSWER ALERT but we actually prefer simple suggestions so the improv is making the comedy rather than the audience feeling any kind of pressure. Having said that I do struggle to keep a straight face when we land on something funny I know we’ll need to explore. I actually think a bit of unavoidable corpsing is OK, it’s a nice reminder to the audience we’re discovering it at the same time they are.
Do you have any pre-show rituals or routines to get yourself in the right mindset for the unpredictability of each performance?
Absolutely. We warm up playing improv games like word association and other fun ones that put us on the spot. Also games that help us focus and listen. Remembering what you and your scene partner have said for the last 65 minutes requires a huge amount of attention, without listening the whole show would fall apart. Oh and I ALWAYS have a banana and a diet coke 30 minutes before each show, or I refuse to perform.
Have you ever accidentally broken character due to laughter during a performance? If so, what happened?
I think I probably do this at least once a show, haha, it’s part of the joy of improv. What’s important is coming back and committing 100%, while keeping the sense of fun and abandon.
What would be a suggestion for a show that you would love to act out?
I love anything set in the 50s in the deep south of America, a ranch in Texas or a boat on the Mississippi or something would be cool. Also, we don’t often get a decade in the future so it’d be fun to try a futuristic one, maybe post apocalyptic or in space or something.
Similarly, is there a suggestion you would dread someone bringing up?
Haha, probably anything that tries to be too clever/funny ‘a dildo factory’ or ‘a dinosaur orgy’ or something. Of course our aim is a comedy play but usually comedy in plays doesn’t come from the location, time period or title, it comes from the characters. So whatever we get we’ll try to play some characters with recognisable hopes and dreams so the audience can relate. Maybe the dinosaur has body confidence issues, or the dildo factory owner is bored with his life and always wanted to be an architect. What I mean is, we’ll aim to make anything work!
The Improvised Play opens at Arcola Theatre on 5th March and plays until 9th March. More information and tickets can be found here: https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/the-improvised-play/