Monday, November 19, 2012

Mischief Theatre at ImproFest - One Wet Man (18.11)

And now for something completely different: a short post about improvisation that has nothing to do with the music, thus having very little to do with what's usually the subject and the goal of this blog.
Anyway the Mischief company created and ad hoc, improvised on the spot movie, a western filled with action, passion, drama, childhood trauma and absurd. The goodie-goodie hero Max J. (one name that sounds like two) fought through his fear of water and saved the beautifull Rosalie and the city of Moscow from the evil gang of bathroom invaders, proving in the course of the action that eating tons of sausage can be a bonding element to a romantic relation and drinking a glass of water can be an act of courage.
I have seen a lot of short form stage improvs, but never anything long-form guided with such a finesse and sense of structure. And the rules of a good improvisation are pretty much the same whether it's music or stage act. It all comes down to putting your skills and immagination to a test, being ready to act and react and co-create, building up an entire story from little more than a scratch.
The audience's suggestions in that case were: western, Moscow, "One Wet Man", bathroom and sausage. How they've managed to put that together escapes my understanding, but they've created an underrated classic of the genre.

If you get a chance to see them, do yourself a favour and don't miss it. As much fun you can fit into one hour without risking the implosion of the universe.


2 comments:

  1. Really well-written and interesting article. Btw: are you Polish or Engilish?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm Polish, glad you like the post. thanks for reading. Bartek

    ReplyDelete

It feels great when someone's reading what I'm writing! Please leave a comment if there's anything on Your mind concerning the post (or other subjects) and come back soon.