A couple of generations ago, high on the success of Channel Four's Whose Line Is It Anyway?, it seemed that any group of four or more twentysomethings gathered in a space in London were essaying a little impro. (Or is it "improv"? Like many, I know there's a difference but not what that difference actually is). These days, the likes of Showstopper! continue the tradition, but John Sessions is no longer with us and Jonathan Pryce is Sir Jonathan Pryce.
So it's great to see Make It Beautiful Theatre Company reviving what is not quite a lost art with their The Dream Machine show. The premise, as ever, is straightforward - a member of the audience gives an unseen suggestion (in this case, an outline of a dream) and the boys and girls on stage create a comic improvisation loosely - often very loosely - based on that snippet. For the audience, half the fun comes from the actual humour generated and the other half from watching the performers on a theatrical highwire. That and the fact that it's still something of a novelty to laugh together in a crowd.
Improv can be hit-and-miss of course, but there are a few essential elements. It works best later in the evening and with a house relaxed, having had a drink or six. The performers have to be confident as a group, not spending too much time looking at each other fearful of missing a cue or of talking over a line. And there has to be some cohesion to the emerging narrative - it can sometimes be quite fun if the actors lose their way, but, like most jokes, it's not as funny second time round.
Make It Beautiful's young quintet (Felix Grainger, Molly-Rose Treves, Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson, Max Katz, Pip Franks) bring the chaos and the charm, but, on the night I saw them, couldn't quite get the two 30 minutes playlets to take wing. I confess I was a little surprised that they didn't have a prepared gag or two about sex (predictably the heart of the first dream) or celebrities (as predictably the subject of the second) with work and partying as sub-themes, but maybe that's unfair. Perhaps, with their technique inspired by Obra Theatre Company in France, such cribbing is an anathema.
So go along with a dream that isn't too Freudian in mind and a drink or two in your system and hope you hit lucky - because when improv really does fly, it's a thrilling spectacle.
Make It Beautiful's The Dream Machine is on tour
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