John Curtin Hotel, Carlton, April 5, 12 and 19, 2012
Reviewed by Joe Calleri
Published in Herald Sun online
March 30, 2012 6:58PM
Stars: ★
OF THE various improvisational forms, long-form improvisation – where improvisers create lengthy narratives from titles provided by an audience – is the most challenging. Few improvisers possess the courage or skill to successfully pull off a long-form show.
For the seven members of comedy troupe Pop Up Playground, their level of ambition far outweighs their collective skills as improvisers, so their show is ultimately overly-long, static, unpolished and decidedly amateurish.
The basic premise of this show is that six of the seven performers are guild leaders (Blacksmith, Art Teacher, Farmer, Carpenter, Doctor, Tax Collector) in the fictional town of Arsington-Brown. The seventh performer narrates. The town is being terrorised by a werewolf that kills off the guild leaders one by one. The audience’s task is to guess which of the guild leaders is the werewolf.
While this form of guessing and role-playing game might be fun to play with children, or with close friends around the dinner table, without the benefit of skilled improvisers, it does not transition well to the stage.
The troupe are, regrettably, far too restrained and sedentary in their performances, and this show would greatly benefit from some heightened physicality and general chaos.
Audiences hungry for high-quality, well-performed improv, should catch one of Impro Melbourne’s Comedy Festival shows.
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