The actors’ reactions are whip-smart, their sense of fun the perfect marriage with an ironically well-studied and carefully honed craft

Improv is by nature an unruly beast, the genre facilitating both dizzying heights and abysmal lows of my theatre-going experiences. Let’s not forget about the particular nadir which involved my mum laughing much harder at an inebriated audience member vomiting over the row in front, bringing the performance to an abrupt end, than she had throughout the audience suggestion-based sketch show itself. When it’s good, though, it’s just about the most fun you can have in a theatre, creative spontaneity and a healthy dose of the absurd making for a ephemeral slice of comedic joy. At its best, improv is a personal, participatory adventure into the unknown, with hundreds of factors on any given night influencing a unique interplay between cast and audience, producing a work of art never to be recreated, and savoured all the more in the moment because of it.

The first two episodes of London’s 50-Hour Improvathon, an improvised sitcom comprising of twenty-five two-hour live sessions running continuously over a full weekend, were a dazzling testament to just how fabulous improv can be. Originally created by award-winning Canadian troupe ‘Die Nasty’, the London’s 50-Hour Improvathon has been running more or less annually since 2008, now back at Wilton’s Music Hall after a three year break. The event was brought to London by esteemed theatre maker Ken Campbell and since then has been produced by director Adam Meggido and Extempore Theatre as an annual event, likened to binge watching an entire DVD box-set of comedy drama in one viewing. This year’s theme is ‘The Wedding Party’, inspired by cinematic classics such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mamma Mia!, Muriel’s Wedding, and Bridesmaids. One thing’s for certain in determining the fate of this off-the-cuff dramatic extravaganza: that the actors are incredibly talented, reactions whip-smart, their sense of fun the perfect marriage with an ironically well-studied and carefully honed craft. They are the very best in the business, coming from all over the world to bring a cast of characters to life that include handyman Matt Finish, socialite James Bootsen-Katsen Butsenkatsen, and journalist Anita Scoop.

Spirits are high in the iconic venue, although events on stage are guided by directorial puppet masters Meggido (Peter Pan Goes Wrong; A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong; Mischief Movie Night; Burlesque) and Ali James (PS I’m a Terrible Person; Peter Pan Goes Wrong; Showstopper! An Improvised Musical) rather than audience suggestions. These marionettes are loose on their strings, with no controlling the direction of a scene after its initial set up. Highlights include the origin story of protagonist and groom-to-be Mr. Scott’s friendship with best man ‘Norwegian conference-goer’ Bjorn Fjords, who tells us a tale of a ship that can travel over the sea, through the air, across the land, and through time. Jasper Everafter entertains with variations on a bit that he is (not so) secretly a ghost – ‘I haven’t felt so alive since I was alive!’ – and Sister Margaret strikes up a rewarding friendship with Inbal Lori’s character, ‘officially a waitress but mostly a drug dealer’, after bonding over the freely available, hallucinogenic wonders of creation – ‘Sister, let’s go to the back yard and talk to Jesus’. The spirit of Wittgenstein visits loveable rogue Mike Powell, and Julie Clare shines as Jewish aunt Becky Kvetch. 

Alex Marker’s set design is highly accomplished, immersing us in the world of Everafter Manor, with the split-stage layout allowing scenes to reach their full comedic potential. Marion Reasonable, general manager of the wedding venue, sits at her office desk on the top level while characters run desperately in to see her below, throughout a scene in which ‘members of different departments come to Marion with their problems, who solves them quickly’. Sister Margaret’s confession of a spiritual and sexual awakening is met with a brusque ‘well, keep it to yourself’, Mike Powell’s complaints of belittlement by the spirits of late philosophers are remedied with the suggestion he finds real people to fight, and Matt Finish’s alarming discovery of a giant c*ck and balls painted on the helipad is revealed to be the work of Marion herself. Episode two continues with more ghostly mischief and culminates in Scott’s marriage to Fjords in the wake of an absent bride. I’ve found myself wondering in exactly what direction the narrative has taken at various points over the past 46 hours, a full weekend ticket being the clear recommended choice for the improvisationally curious. Make sure you catch these masters of their craft next year – the Improvathon is a riotously fun rite of passage for performers and audience alike.