Theatre / bristol shakespeare festival
Review: Impromptu Shakespeare, Wardrobe Theatre
As part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival that verily spilleth out from all corners of the city throughout the month of July, this troupe of actors uses its (not inconsiderable, and at times positively inspired) improvising skills to “buckle on the Bard’s britches and bring you the plays he never wrote…”.
The evening gets off to a fun start with the audience pelting the cast with a volley of ping-pong balls with random words written on them, a handful of which are caught in the Bard’s gaping pantaloons.
We thus end up with a list of buzzwords including: clifftop, smother, Scotland, prayer, castle and forest, which together form the backbone of a number of sketchily improvised scenes. In workpersonlike fashion, the actors go about their task of assuming characters whilst thinking fast on their feet: Duke Rupert acquires a doting (and slightly bisexual) manservant Minion; a tongue-tied rustic wench (“I am but a lowly milkmaid”) wanders down a lane and onto the stage; two sisters decide to very loosely disguise themselves as woodcutters, prior to everyone morphing into a horde of marauding Scottish warriors. The ensemble leads us up the garden path, necessarily calling in at Nottingham forest and a clifftop on the way, while displaying the odd urge to smother someone… You get the idea.
is needed now More than ever
The only way improv works at all at this speed is by the actors constantly saying ‘yes’ to each other and conspiring to go with whatever flow ensues. If someone goes off on a surreal tangent – particularly if it’s expositional or moves the plot along nicely, for they have but one hour to spin their yarn – everyone follows suit, including the audience.
Apart from some cod iambic pentameter and lots of thou-ing, wouldst-ing and verily-my-Lord-ing, it’s actually nothing like any play what Shakespeare wrote, but more like the stuff that ended up in his bin while he was writing it. And, magically, it’s none the worse for it, but all the merrier, with much chortling, guffawing and slapping of thighs (and that’s just the audience).
One can’t help but be charmed by the brinkmanship, the desperately fumbly wordsmithery, the costumes made of curtains, and the amusing painting of each other into corners in this unpredictable little symphony of complicity. A goodly night was had by all, and, forthsooth, t’was ne’er the same twice o’er on any other! But then, that’s improv for you.
Impromptu Shakespeare performed at the Wardrobe Theatre on Thursday, July 6 and Friday, July 7. For the rest of this year’s Bristol Shakespeare Festival programme, visit www.bristolshakespearefestival.org.uk/bsf2017
Read more: Interview: INKBLOC Ensemble
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