Dude, Where's My Script?

The title describes a comedy format thought up by my talented son-in-law, Nathan Chapman. He dreamed up the idea of a comedy improvisation troupe performing classic theatre games for the entertainment of a paying audience. You will see such performances taking place twice weekly at the Comedy Stores in London and Manchester with such luminaries as Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence. The format will seem familiar from TV shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway? However, in my personal opinion, the live stage versions far surpass even the admittedly very funny TV show. It must be that element of surprise and delight in watching the performers create a piece of comic theatre, a miniature gem of a comedy sketch, before your very eyes.

Improvisation is often perceived as threatening by some non-professional actors who prefer the comfort zone of a script and a controlled rehearsal space. Nathan has seen the benefits first hand of the improvisational approach as the theatre lecturer at a sixth form college. Added to his undoubted talent to think on his feet verbally, and his skill as a playwright, Nathan is a very persuasive person. About two years ago now, he had managed to get together a group of actors, a rehearsal space and a venue for performances. Rehearsal space always seems to instantly imply that the actors rehearse the scenes but this is definitely not the case. The space is needed so that the troupe can learn to work with each other and learn some of the hundreds of games that are available for this sphere of activity. There is no way you can prepare or rehearse what might happen on a particular evening because each evening is unique. The premise is that the performers will respond to suggestions from the audience and spontaneously create the required scene. Other factors, such as venue, the other performers on stage that night, the format of the evening itself, all have to be taken into consideration on the night and cannot be anticipated beforehand.

I think the Dude troupe has now done five or six of these evenings at the Havant Arts Centre and each evening has differed from the others to a minor or sometimes major degree. The reason for this is that the troupe has been trying to find a satisfying format for both the audience and for the performers. Sometimes, of course, the changes have been enforced by clashes with other commitments.

I was involved in the first two, I think, and then had a break from two events before rejoining the troupe last night. The first one and last night's were staged in the gallery space of the Arts Centre with a small raised platform and the audience seated at tables with easy access to the bar. The second one and the two I missed took place in the theatre.

The troupe has grown but the optimum number of performers per evening seems to be four and so the Dude troupe has the capacity to mount two teams but in reality it can sometimes be quite difficult to match date with availability.

On the three occasions I have been involved, the format has had a M.C. (me) and an assistant running the proceedings by introducing the performers and the games, and generally keeping a judicious eye on what is working and what is not, and keeping the timing tight. I ended up as M.C. because I wasn't fast enough on my feet to be a useful performer but have the bluster to stand out front as compere. Zoe, my firstborn, has been the assistant/adjudicator on all three occasions and has been the producer and/or stage manager element. It certainly takes pressure off the compere and the performers. She spends a great deal of time cajoling written suggestions out of the audience before the show starts and is fundamental in establishing a rapport and a welcoming atmosphere for the audience. Her contribution is a vital aspect of the success of the evening and she does it patiently with great forebearance and diligence.

The gallery space wins over the theatre space in terms of intimacy and a better contact and relationship with the audience. I found the theatre encouraged a heckling style of suggestions coming from the paying patrons and, even in the intimate space of the Havant Arts Centre auditorium, an almost gladitorial "them and us" feel about the whole event. It wasn't helped by drunken hecklers in the balcony and the baying of the audience made it difficult to hear and interpret suggestions. I felt very relieved when that evening was over and wasn't too sorry when other commitments meant I was unable to take part in events three and four. These were performed with Nathan as one of the four performers also acting as compere, which obviously put him under an enormous amount of pressure. The feedback was also that the suggestions were unhelpful in the least.

When last night's event was being planned, I volunteered again as compere if I could have an assistant (which as it turned out was once again Zoe). I also took on the responsibility for coming up with a format for handling suggestions. We prepared, as we had in the past, a suggestions sheet for the audience to complete beforehand but reshaped it. I have been doing some research into what seems a veritable industry of improvisational theatre and comedy circuits. I came across a website, www. fnipgh.com, (Friday Nite Improvs), which pointed out that the more normal suggestions usually resulted in a funny scene, whereas the "funny" suggestions got a cheap laugh and the performers spent ten minutes of mind numbing nonsense trying to work up a scene using the suggestion. Following this dictum, we impressed upon the audience the need to keep their suggestions normal. It worked but did seem to restrict the amount of calling out and perhaps I was a trifle heavy handed but I felt we were in control of the event rather than the audience (or the heckling element out for a cheap bit of fun) and that in the end both the performers and the audience were the winners. Both newcomers to our work and people who had seen all our shows to date were quick to express their appreciation of how well the evening worked and how much they enjoyed it.

The evening worked so well of course because of the inspired genius and teamwork of the four performers: Alice, Mark, Nathan and Robin. Alice is infectious and when on top form is just a very funny lady. Robin is the more serious of the two girls performing last night and tends to form the quiet still centre around which the inspired lunacy of the other three flows. She is however very good as the human prop (you do need to see the show to understand some of these references) and delights in maintaining the storytelling element of each scene. Mark and Nathan are just very witty, very quick, very clever and very inventive. To see Mark's morris dance ending in the immortal line "Now I am fertile" was to witness a moment that nearly brought the house down. It was matched by Nathan's Oscar Winning Moment when he "drowned" in an imaginary river while on a bridge building exercise. On stage together Mark and Nathan are comic dynamite and, throw in Alice and Robin on last night's form, you had a combination that produced a wonderful two hours of inspired comedy.

Piano Forte

If you have never seen a Terry Johnson play, you are depriving yourself of a theatrical treat. Michael Frayn, no slouch when it comes to playwriting himself, rates Terry Johnson as one of the finest around. Johnson tackles themes that might daunt lesser talented writers but always with a wicked sense of humour and some highly imaginative coup de theatre. Piano Forte at the Royal Court is the latest of his plays to appear in the West End and certainly is a great addition to his canon.

The play opens with a poetic monologue describing what seems to be a suicide. The monologue is delivered by the Australian uncle (beautifully played by Danny Webb). The opening is enigmatic, the uncle is enigmatic and, as the play proceeds on its way, enigmas abound.

The single set is an English country manor house with a sweeping staircase up to a landing ,which cuts across huge floor to ceiling windows. There is an entrance stage right to the garden (stage directions are always given from the viewpoint of the actor) and stage left leads to the rest of the house. The main door is located up stage centre, underneath the landing formed by the staircase. Between the main door and the foot of the stairs is a grand piano. It is important to grasp the solidity of the setting, because, as in virtually all his plays, Johnson is going to show you that nothing is as solid as it appears at first.

Seated at the piano, and playing quietly and expertly to herself, is Abigail (Alicia Witt), the mentally unstable daughter of a Tory MP, who is about to be married for the third time (the MP not the daughter). Abigail's mother, the first wife, apparently killed herself after suffering from acute depression most of her life. The mother was a concert pianist and obviously Abigail has inherited some of her traits, in more ways than one. The Australian uncle has remained to look after the house for his brother-in-law. even though there is a family waiting in Australia.

Into this tranquil but somewhat gloomy setting bursts Louise (Kelly Reilly), the gloriously rebellious, "drug-munching, self-analysing, libidinous" other daughter. Amongst Louise's first actions are to destroy a full length family portrait hanging on the staircase and then, topless, to greet her father and her new about- to -be - stepmother.

It is obvious that Louise blames her father for the death of her mother two decades earlier and she may even have witnessed the event.

This plot scenario makes the play sound more gloomy and more Ibsenesque than it is. Terry Johnson loves playing mind games and his script is very funny. The introduction of two acrobats into the wedding proceedings is a pure Johnson moment and yet is a perfectly logical development of the situations created.

A Terry Johnson play is always worth looking out for and Piano Forte is no exception.

Teatro Delusio

Teatro Delusio is a show by the German company, Family Floez. When we were up in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, we saw their Ristorante Immortale at St Stephen's. Their style is a wonderful mix of physical theatre, masks and puppetry. In Teatro Delusio we find ourselves backstage in a theatre. We are looking at the backs of flats in the area usually occupied by the backstage crew and the cast on their way to the stage, which in this case was out of sight upstage centre. We hear snatches of the invisible audience arriving and settling, the orchestra, the opera, the ballet and later a slapstick in the style of silent movie comedies, and even later the three Musketeers. We see none of the performances because the backstage area is a bustle with diverse characters and there is never a dull moment. What makes this remarkable is that we know there are only three actors who between them play something like 29 characters. The masks are incredible and characters are instantly recognisable. There is no dialogue because there is no talking backstage! Yet we know everything these characters think and feel because of the body language. As a director and an actor, I think we would learn a great deal from watching this company in action. We rely too heavily on the words to carry the message rather than look at the accompanying body language. The first character we are introduced to in Teatro Delusio is the theatre ghost, a puppet of a diminutive girl, handled with extraordinary care and delicacy by all three actors. It is through the ghost that we are drawn into the always absorbing, frequently hilarious and occasionally poignant backstage world. I could identify with the rotund stage manager in love with the leading opera singer until he gave birth to twins - you had to be there to understand. The ancient violinist, escaping the bustle of the parade of arriving musicians, sitting in the nearest available chair before being shooed onstage (out of our sight) by the imperious conductor. A gay ballet master, allowed to "preen" an endless procession of ballerinas (remember there are only three real actors in the whole cast), appealed to the old roue in me, before he came downstage and singled me out for propositioning. Everyone interested in the theatre either as a performer or as audience should see this show as like Michael Frayn's Noises Off or Ronald Harwood's The Dresser it throws an intriguing light on theatrical life backstage. As for the Family Floez, I see they are already at work on Hotel Paradiso. The only disappointment was a partially filled Nuffield Theatre. This company deserve so much better and please watch out for them, hopefully at a theatre near you soon.