Review – Sprout Ideas’ Improv Revealed at the Actors Centre
A masterfully executed improv show not to miss.
It’ s hard to know what to expect from a fully improvised show. It can be funny, but it can also go terribly wrong. It’s in its nature to be unpredictable and unexpected. Improv reveald was a brilliant mixture of short and long form improv, performed to be entertaining and also to give a bit of knowledge on how this performance technique works.
The show was part of the Actor’s Centre’s John Thaw Initiative Season, that features a diverse array of work-in-progress theatre developed by actors. The program is vast and interesting; and Sprout Ideas will be offering improv based shows every weekend.
The evening started with a “simple” game (though nothing in improv is simple), where the players had to tell a story out of an audience’s suggestion. Our night kicked off with the story of the Newspaper in Glasgow, setting up the scene for the hilarious night to come.
The second game on the list was: freeze, where a story would be told through scenes that would be set going backwards in time. This has proven to be an hilarious story about a man who forgot to attend his brother’s 60th birthday, and every single one of his birthdays since his 30th . It had everything you could desire from a theatre piece: witty lines, funny situations and characters you could relate to.
Before the interval the audience got a chance to try out some improve games themselves, getting to invent a story with the person they were sitting next to, and also gained an insight on the improv technique with an exercise on how to accept your improv partner’s suggestions to move the scene further.
The second Act was built on an improvised full length play. Before the interval the audience had to suggest a title for a play. The audience was called to choose which title to see performed. Our play was the Benevolent Killer, a very surreal musical about some benevolent killing. The protagonist was a singing detective, who became a famous TV and Youtube star. A singing detective by day, a benevolent serial killer by night, with a trasgender family that was about to discover his secret.
The cast (Dave Bourn, Cameron Blair, Jon Cohen, James Wordsworth, Carlotta DeGregori and Paul Ayres at the piano), was able to bring any idea to life, giving every characters depth, and creating comical situations that made it impossible not to laugh.
Sprout Ideas, lead by Dave Bourn, has managed to put together a funny show, where audience could enjoy a performance, get an insight into improv and have a great night out.
It made improv look easy, thanks to the experienced actors that led the audience into this improvised journey.
Overall a masterfully executed improv show not to miss.
Next shows:
27th January: The Play’s the Thing (for info and tickets click here)
3rd February: Improv revealed (for info and tickets click here)
More info on the John Thaw Initiative Season here