Guest Blog: Experiencing the epic #wosimprovathon

This weekend saw the fifth annual London Improvathon being performed at Hoxton Hall. Comprising fifty hours of non-stop improvised comedy subtitled Tales from the Greek Games: 50 performers, 50 hours, 25 episodes, it was an epic undertaking, and Whatsonstage.com was there to bear witness. Here, our reviewer Miranda Fay Thomas shares her experiences…

As I arrive at Hoxton Hall, it’s around 4:30pm on Sunday. For me, it’s been a reasonably relaxing day so far: a spot of lunch, reading a new book, wandering around in some surprise sunshine. But the performers I’m about to witness have had nothing of the sort. Since 7pm on Friday night, they have been continuously improvising an Athenian soap-opera set in 2012 BC. They’re due to finish at 9pm after 50 hours of unscripted live comedy in front of a paying audience.

24 performers are attempting the full 50 hours, including Ruth Bratt, whose previous work includes Mongrels and Fast and Loose. Guest performers pop in and out to give the core cast important bursts of energy, including Showstopper! regular Pippa Evans and Canadian improv legend David Shore. The ensemble have been gathered from all over the world, tying in with the loose theme of the Olympics, although by the time I arrive the storyline has evolved into a right-old barney between the mortals of Greece and the almighty gods themselves.

A few days previously I’d read an interview that David Shore did last year, where he claimed that the UK improv scene was 25 years behind the USA’s. A champion of long-form improvisation, he believes that off-the-cuff comedy can be about so much more than three-minute skits, games, and unrelated musical numbers. The challenge is to create something bigger, something that can be sustained over an hour or longer with just as little preparation. It’s a brave and exhilarating prospect for both performers and audiences, and it’s certainly taking off in the UK. Showstopper! The Improvised Musical have been wowing audiences with their invention and musical dexterity since 2008, with their production company The Sticking Place committing themselves to “innovation and improvisation in theatre.”

With several members of Showstopper! making up the cast of the Improvathon, the ensemble’s pedigree is secure. But understandably, by the time I arrive some are staggering around in a bit of a haze at the side of the auditorium. Some are even lying down on benches between scenes, in need of some shut-eye, however brief. Yet overall the mood is high, almost manic at times. Live musicians are on hand to give the cast opportunities to break into song – because improvising a narrative chockful of jokes without sleep isn’t hard enough. The final two episodes are about to begin, and we’re a mere four hours away from the end of Improvathon. Who will win the battle between the gods and the mortals? And will anyone be awake to find out?

Each new episode begins with a recap of old characters and storylines. We meet Hercules and his love-interest, Jet from Gladiators (your guess is as good as mine); Stavros, the creepiest man in the world; Senator Humble, whom the audience immediately stand up and salute (what on earth have I missed?); and the gods Pan and Poseidon are in a committed, bestial, shrimp-loving relationship. Obviously.

Some of the performers are doing phenomenal work. In particular, Hades is equally capable of creating a high sense of drama and delivering devastatingly funny lines. When someone tells him that his hatred will never be sated, he retorts, “Then I will at least give it an amuse-bouche.” Director Adam Meggido is also doing sterling work by orchestrating the entire affair, calling the scenes and throwing the characters into situations simply to see what happens. At one point, he instructs the cast to congregate in “The Temple of Camp Pillars”, a ridiculous building whose own structural supports are predisposed to make outrageous innuendo around the dialogue and make me cry with laughter.

In the break between episodes, I get to go behind the scenes and see the magic combination of fags, booze, food, and plastic swords that are fuelling this grueling 50-hour challenge. Amazingly, the actors are still talking to each other and not at all lying in the foetal position whimpering, as I half-expected. Morale is pretty high, and there’s a real sense of community backstage. There’s a small army of unpaid volunteers who have been helping out all weekend, making sure the cast are keeping their strength up by cooking for them and ensuring they have what they need to continue the marathon.

Speaking with Ellie, a volunteer currently training at LAMDA, we concluded that director Adam Meggido’s task must surely be the hardest: he is the one constant of the full 50 hours, watching all the action and composing the scenes that will – hopefully – keep the narrative flowing. It’s a daunting task, not only when seen through bleary-eyes, but when some of the cast have never worked together before. The improvisers from all over the globe met for a few hours on Thursday, and each were given a character – but all the relationships between them were worked out live on stage. It’s the closest thing theatre gets to alchemy, and it’s up to Meggido to put the right people together to ensure comedy gold.

As the final episode gets underway, it’s time for Meggido to tie up the loose ends. The hall is packed, and it’s crunch time for the gods and the mortals. Will Hades triumph? Will Senator Humble be able to rebuild Athens? Will Uranus, the most ancient of the gods, finally get a romantic scene?

It’s hard for me to judge without having been there for the full 50 hours, but Episode 25 is a proper powerhouse of a performance, and there’s a real sense of the ensemble pulling together to create an epic ending worthy of the endurance test they’ve put themselves through. There’s a fabulous song, entitled “Sewer Time”, complete with key change, which culminates in the vocalist being devoured by his own rats. We’re treated to a Bollywood routine, where mundane activities suggested by the audience are translated into dance moves performed “with boundless love” – a brilliant way of keeping the energy going. We’re also still getting some sublimely funny lines: when Zeus appears in the middle of a debacle, Socrates cries “**** me, a deus ex machina!” By the end, Ruth Bratt’s voice is on its way out, but not before she delivers a genuinely moving tribute to Improvius, her slain mortal lover. She plays Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and procreation, and we see that love itself has had its heart broken. Sleep has not been the only casualty over the past 50 hours.

But of course, the action ultimately ends on a more fitting note of fun and silliness, as we see Pan and Poseidon homoerotically lagging their loft and caressing each other while “Lady In Red” plays. And what a climax it is. There is a standing ovation from the audience, congratulating the cast on making it through the weekend. Everyone came out alive (which is more than can be said for a plethora of fictional characters), and Dionysus himself pulls me up onto the stage for a celebratory dance to bouzouki music.

It’s a real testament to the production that there’s such a feeling of camaraderie between cast, crew and audience, and at the Improvathon‘s conclusion there’s a genuine sense of appreciation and affection permeating the room. The improv scene has come an awfully long way since Whose Line Is It Anyway?, despite the fact that university troupes turn up at the Edinburgh Fringe each year often using exactly the same format. But with off-the-cuff comedy, it really is a matter of who dares wins: The Sticking Place really are screwing their courage to their belief in long-form improv, and they are the champions of wit. The results are comically ludicrous, but their dream is not. And no matter how surreal the performance gets, like a strange dream it all makes sense at the time.

– Miranda Fay Thomas