By Impro Theatre LA (Online)
Improvisation with performers from round the globe
Monday 12 Oct 2020 Melbourne time (aired LA time 2pm Sun 11 Oct 2020)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***1/2
https://improtheatre.com/livestreaming/
This review only published on this blog. KH
In this format called Le Roundabout, Impro Theatre LA invited improvisers from around the globe to do a show together on Zoom. They had only 45 minutes online together prior to the show and that wasn’t rehearsal time because it’s all improvised!
Director, Dan O’Connor, asks the virtual audience to type suggestions for a location and heirloom in the Chat and the first scene begins on a beach with a sunset over an ocean.
What follows is a mad, dating advice story dealing with miscommunication in relationships as couples meet, date, break up, hold, hands, kiss virtually, get back together, have inspired moments about love and miscommunicate constantly.
The tension is palpable for both performers and characters as they navigate the complexities of the virtual performance arena and the confusing relationship landscape. Ironically, given the virtual world, this show is not about online dating.
Joanne (Edi Patterson) breaks up with Jack (Jeffrey Thompson), her ‘hot’ but ‘curmudgeonly’ boyfriend whose cat strolls into frame and is instantly incorporated into the story which is now on the Cat Beach. (Accepting offers is an improvisation imperative, no matter what they are.)
Luke Sorba is hilarious earnest as Brian, the Cat Beach Moderator, who inadvertently becomes a dating moderator, advising his relationship-challenged cousin, Tom (Joe Bill) about the ‘hand-holding status’ of his relationship with Cynthia (Naomi Snieckus).
Brian has no human friends and spends his time listing actresses who played Catwoman and sending humans off the beach when it is Cats-Only time.
Meanwhile, Joanne is on a first date with Tony (Jun Imai, improvising in his second language) who impresses her with his antique film projector, his muscularity and his famous film director father – he’s a Coppola.
With the switches between screen – and countries – the improvisers occasionally do not run with some of the director’s specific offers that might raise the stakes further, such as, ‘Back at the cantina, chaos rules’.
However, the human and cat action escalates until Tom, in a heartfelt monologue, has a life-changing realisation about love with hilarious metaphors about growing vegetables and the story ends.
This is edge of your seat performance, not least because nobody, least of all the improvisers, knows what’s coming next. More trans-global impro, please!
By Kate Herbert
Cast
Jo Bill (Chicago)
Edi Patterson (LA)
Luke Sorba (London)
Naomi Snieckus (Canada)
Jeffrey Thompson (LA)
Jun Imai (Japan)
Directed by Dan O’Connor
Kari Coleman on Technical Direction (Switcher)
Helen Allemano on Sound
Rich Johnson on OBS Tech and Video.
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