We’re dealing with real people’s real stories.” “But then we’re not trying to do something funny around the theme of toilet brushes. “PEOPLE often say it’s like Whose Line Is It Anyway?” says Tig Land, artistic director of London’s Random Acts theatre company. The audience is unsurprisingly reticent to begin with but are soon falling over themselves to join in… by the time the hour is up the whole room is abuzz with collective excitement and the warm feeling of having got to know far more about each other than anyone could have ever expected.Ĭhris Bartlett for “The Stage” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe The admirably fearless cast of Random Acts’ latest show has taken something as potentially bottom-clenchingly embarrassing as theatre improv, and turned it into something rather lovely and thought provoking.Ĭreating expressionistic pieces out of fresh air based entirely on suggestions, sensitively teased out by compère Tig Land, from members of the audience, is an intrinsically risky affair… the joy here is that occasionally the committed quartet of actresses, supported by the musician, manage to produce some nuggets of pure gold, such as a charming vignette based on a man’s story of taking a group of old age pensioners on a magical mystery tour to Whitby and the story of another man falling in love with his fire escape. Gary Platt for “The Edinburgh Guide” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe If you want to see novel, highly original and highly entertaining theatre this Fringe go and watch this show, I absolutely guarantee you will not be disappointed. This kind of theatre is so novel and different from anything else and also so enjoyable it deserves bigger audiences though I think the performance space they have chosen is perfect for their needs, there’s an intimacy I believe needed for this kind theatre and the room within which they perform has it. It’s fascinating to watch, almost voyeuristic (in a nice way) and judging by the company’s web site highly therapeutic. The cast: Helen Rogerson, Kirsty Dodds, Rachel Earnshaw supported by Richard Brock on a variety of musical and percussive instruments re-enact the scene improvising the situation and using just a handful of props. Here’s how the show works the audience, who are treated gently and respectfully are asked by Tig Land to talk about an incident or a story they would like to share with the group. In one of my favourite venues, and in one of my favourite performance spaces I was introduced to the Random Acts Theatre Company. Very, very occasionally something will appear on the Fringe which is different from anything else you might have encountered and because of the wide diversity of the Fringe that is a rare occurrence, but it happened last night. Thom Dibdin for “The Stage” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe They are able to find an inner truth to the story that its original teller will recognise but which they have not vocalised, while the rest of the audience is happily chortling away at the surreal free-form result. The beauty of the production is that this level of teasing out a story and the rapport which Tig creates with her audience means that the actresses can reflect much more than the simple facts they have been told. To help ease it along, Richard Brock is on hand to provide a bit of musical accompaniment. Tig Land finds out a few more details and then directs her three actresses, Cherie, Jules and Helen (unsurprisingly this is all first-name level stuff) to recreate the story they have heard in a style of her choosing. Members of the audience relate an event which has recently happened to them. Thanks to judicious facilitation from Tig Land, it has all the best elements of the standard improv show with the ability to speak direct to its audience at a depth that most theatre can only aspire to. Random Acts Theatre Company create improvisational theatre of a calibre so high that it is almost shocking to witness.
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