The excitement of live theatre is that every performance is different; you’re always at an absolutely unique event. This is even more true of Improbable Theatre’s shows; they make a point of leaving room for spontaneity, and thrive on the risk that something altogether unpredictable might happen. Lifegame is a kind of staged biography, but they don’t even know who the night’s subject is until it’s showtime.
It works like this: the guest for the night comes out and is interviewed by Lee Simpson. A clutch of other performers, led by Phelim McDermott, sit at one side, listening intently. When the interviewee mentions something that sounds as if it would make an interesting scene, they improvise it. Sometimes there’s music, sometimes song, sometimes wacky design elements, sometimes it’s played quite straight.
Each night’s guest for this run has some connection or other with the venue, the National Theatre. On Wednesday night, it was former NT artistic director Richard Eyre; when I saw it on Thursday, the interviewee was health & safety officer Tony Harley. Who? Exactly – it’s a lottery. But it’s not fame or glitter that makes good material. Indeed, the best scenes are of events we can all relate to.
At the show I saw, scenes included a family dinner and Tony’s first kiss, as well as the time he was in a plane that lost pressure at 25,000 feet and a musical number about his stint as an RAF technician, sung with three planes! Obviously, some notions are going to work better than others. So it goes. What’s special is getting to see ideas spark right there in front of you, like a professional game of let’s-pretend.
Improbable’s productions may vary in quality from show to show, or even from night to night. That’s in the nature of the way the company works. But they’re always well worth seeing, because they show you exactly what theatre is all about: trying to make magic moments out of thin air. And more than just showing you, they invite you in and make you realise that you’re just as much a part of it too.
Written for Teletext.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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