Improvention 2012 Review - Performances Part II
Triptych - Friday - Cathy Hagarty
B+
My understanding of the format is that a description of a colour is selected to form the basis of a series of unrelated scenes, some of which slowly become connected to each other in some way.
I’ve seen a rehearsal of this format, and I much preferred the rehearsal to this performance. One thread was a family about to move trying to deal with a teenage daughter who was falling in love. The other thread was a woman who was trying to form a relationship with a new man, but haunted by a previous reckless lover, who had presumably died. The scenes were interesting, but at times seemed a little inconsistent.
As one example the new man in the relationship (played by Nick) seemed to have been established as a dreamer type without a clue, and it seemed a little discordant for him to suddenly be emotionally distant and think that sport was the be all of existence. As he was already being compared to another the ghost of the former lover, I think this shift in character was a shame… though Nick did choose to soften the character during the scene and become more understanding.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen the ghost of the former lover incorporated into the family scenes as well… like there had been a reckless brother in that family who had died, which would have helped to explain why the father was so emotionally disconnected now. The ghost could have been haunting the family as well as his relationship. In the rehearsals I saw, all the threads were woven together, and I found that particularly satisfying.
However, this was a charming pair of stories, and it was enjoyable to watch.
How the West Was Improvised - Friday - Patti Styles
A-
This looked pretty great on the stage, with the costumes, with the slides of the town projected on the back wall, and with the slow build-up of tension. It was easy to immerse myself into the world of the Western. The interactions between most of the characters were excellent, and felt true to the genre. The character work of the sheriff, the deputy, and the brothel owner were particularly impressive to watch. I liked the early death of the good farmer, it helped establish the high stakes early on. I would have liked to see more of the good farmer’s family, and their grieving process, as their dynamics were interesting. I would especially have liked to see a funeral scene for the good farmer, which would have involved all the characters of the town together, and given the nun and the farmer’s family a more central role.
The shopkeeper was a disappointment, and blocked two important offers that would have made his character , and the narrative, far more interesting. Indeed, those two blocks, led to the shop scenes adding little apart from atmosphere to the flow of the story - and time was already running short.
I’m talking around the edges of a possible spoiler for those who haven’t seen the show yet…
In the end scene, the evil sheriff gives a speech along the lines of every person who kills someone close to him, he has to kill that killer, to balance his ledger once more. He then disarms himself, and asks the kind stranger in town to kill him. The stranger points his gun at the sheriff’s forehead, and finally decides not to kill him, which was quite a tense final scene, and left the town in poor straights, as the stranger runs from the town and the people who needed a champion.
I would have liked a speech at this point, something along the lines of “This is wrong. Sheriff, you talk about a ledger, about an eye for an eye. For every life taken, the life of the murderer needs to be taken as well. But that leads to a continual cycle of violence… because everyone matters to someone. Who will come to this town to avenge you, when you’ve been killed while you were unarmed? Who will die then? No, the only way for your ledger to be clean, the only way that your death won’t have terrible repercussions for this town and for this stranger, is for you to kill yourself. It’s clear you are ready to die, you’ve reached a dead end. You just don’t have the courage to pull the trigger on yourself. I say, go on and do it! Go on and die.”
Narratively, the sheriff was in a class of his own. It did seem the sheriff started at the beginning as a good guy, and then shifted to a black guy for the needs of the story. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but if it is true, it was an excellent narrative choice. The actor playing the sheriff established early on that he had lost a leg, an eye, and had it in for the good farmer for some reason. And over the course of the performance, the actor found ways to let us know how he had lost his leg, how he had lost his eye, and how he found out that the good farmer was responsible for the death of his brother.
I think long form is a particularly strong challenge to get just right. Every story element combines to the greater whole. If a particular story element doesn’t quite right, it can affect the outcome of everything that comes after it. In short form, you can just drop the scene that doesn’t work and move on to the next one. Much harder to do in long form. So getting a great story like this one is impressive.
Open to Suggestions - Saturday - Bec De Unamuno
A
Bec’s solo performance was a delight. She interweaved three plotlines with their narrative strengths, giving us three well drawn and interesting characters, with their own mannerisms, speech patterns and physical gestures. Two of the characters thought about the world in very shallow and superficial ways, but this made them even more interesting to watch on stage. Getting to know their viewpoints was part of the fun. It was fascinating to see her work from the initial suggestions, and tell such deep and intriguing stories, and all with only her own self as inspiration. Her pacing seemed perfect, changing characters just at the point where I was still wanting more of them, so I was delighted when they next showed up again. It was a delightful surprise when she tied two of the plotlines together. I probably would have been even more satisfied with all three being tied together somehow. Her two main characters were hilarious. I came to care about them, even though they were both really pretty horrible people.
Stuck in the Middle - Saturday - Rik Brown
A-
This format of one person staying in each scene, as the supporting players keep changing the scene by coming in with new offers, and leaving when their scene is done. This is definitely a format that I enjoy watching far more than I would enjoy being in. It’s great to watch on stage, it’s high energy, fast paced, and a rollercoaster of emotion and themes. The offers were continually interesting and engaging. Seeing Jill Bernard switching between scenes was great to watch, her embracing of each offer and putting her own spin on each scene. I felt I got to know Jill quite a bit better by seeing how she responded to different situations. She has a quirky sense of humour, courage, and a certain gentleness and appreciation of others on stage.
Maestro Challenges - Many and Various (including me)
So I caught every challenge on each day of the week, it started out with me wanting to get enough experience of the format to do better on my performance Wednesday night. Of the four, I noticed how important the directors are to the flow of the show. It didn’t always happen that the people I thought should win did win. Really, they began to blur together for me, especially at the end.
Challenge - Monday
A-
This was directed by Nick and Eric and was by far the best. The flow was smooth, it felt the eliminations happened at the right time, and I was happy with the winner. Two standout moments were the ‘be more American’ scene at the end, and the scene that would be rated 1/5.
Challenge - Tuesday
B-
The show finished early, the person who won, Mike, as good as he was, was not ahead by a lot. They had three players who were one point less… it would have been possible, in fifteen minutes, to do two scenes of two people each, and then a tie breaker or elimination game if a winner hadn’t been decided by that time. As I’d paid money for this ticket, I felt a little cheated of about a quarter of the price.
Challenge - Thursday and Friday
B+
These two have rather blurred for me. I don’t even remember who won on the Thursday night, though I feel like I should. Was it Helen? Both were good shows, both strong and enjoyable. I was a bit disappointed that Anne abdicated on the Friday in such a way, that my second favourite, Natalie didn’t win… Glad that both the winner and Natalie did get to perform in the final challenge.
Competing in Challenge - Wednesday
I won’t grade this one as I was in it, though I do think the audience ratings were fair. First scene was a game of story telling or die, or words to that effect. And I screwed up immediately, but tried to keep going. It was a mistake. I should have died. I should also have broken the rules, and rather than just leave the stage, embrace my death entertainingly as possible… the scene rated a 2/5. I think I set a poor example to my fellow players too.
After that initial setback, I recovered and did a lot better.
The four square game, was fun. Being kinesthetic, I like the idea of a scene completely changing dependant on what position on stage you and your fellow players are. I lost sight of character and storybuilding due to the nature of the sudden shifts - maybe that’s the point? I found myself reaching for just the core flow of the scenes and escalating that. Played with PJ for the first time, and really enjoyed it. The scene rated a 4/5.
I was the first speaker in the next scene, a one sentence at a time poem. After my false start in which I thought it was a one word at a time poem, rather than a one sentence at a time poem. I was being careful to make sure my sentences ended in words that were easy to rhyme. At one point I overspoke a sentence to make sure I had a good end word. I think I got away with it. The poem worked magically and rated a 5/5 from the audience.
The genre replay, I was again working with PJ, and I’d say we definitely have some great rapport on stage. In the Sci Fi scene, my character was dematerialised - and how grateful I was that I’d thought about how to do a teleportation effect last year after seeing ACT Impro’s Sci Fi long form. I twinkled my fingers starting at my head and lowering myself to the ground. The scene rated a 4/5.
I was just one point away from getting into the final playoff scene. I couldn’t quite recover from that poor start, though I’d made a good effort to do just that. Before playing in the challenge, I was convinced it was about winning, no matter what anyone else said. Having played it though, I realise it was really about having the chance about having fun, getting to play with people I hadn’t played before, and getting to play games I hadn’t played before. I was very satisfied afterwards.
Challenge Grand Final - Many and Various
A
This was a blast, with a great group of talented improvisers playing full tilt on stage. It was a painful but necessary process to see some of my favourites eliminated. It was a delightful surprise to see Canberra’s own Helen getting as far as she did. She was making great choices in supporting the other actors, especially Bec, in her scenes. The choice of the winner finally came down to her and Bec. Nick wanted to give the staff to both of them as a tie, but the audience wouldn’t have it, they wanted a showdown. I’m quite sure that the audience around me was clapping and cheering just as much for both of them. So we got a solo scene from each of them as a showdown. Helen, playing a housewife being possessed by a demon was awesome, and proved that she was holding her own. Bec’s scene, trying to run a play with only dead actors on the stage, wasn’t quite as good as Helen’s, but also likely more challenging to pull off. And the rematch didn’t help a winner became clear, again everyone around me seemed to be cheering for both of them just as much. In good sportsmanship, both wanted the other to win. The directors finally decided to give the staff to Bec, which considering Helen was new and didn’t want to win at this time, was the best decision. It was a great end to a week of great performances.