WHEN “CityNews” was invited by Impro ACT’s artistic director, Nick Byrne, to attend a rehearsal of its newest project last night, this writer got more than she bargained for.
Nick Byrne interrogates a smiling ‘victim’
Byrne, you see, has come up with what he calls an “intriguing new concept in comedy theatre” and he was looking for new “victims”, urging the rehearsal audience to dob in a mate. He dobbed me in.
The idea is that in ACT I, eight actors (rotating cast of the company’s best) learn to impersonate eight audience members through a series of interviews and games orchestrated by Byrne. In Act II, the actors play the audience members, by name, in an unscripted comedic play, where all the characters meet.
When I arrived, the improvisers’ warmup was in full swing with lots of shouting, breathing, echoing and copying. But this apparent chaos proved to be deceptive, for these were among new pro-ACT’s most skilled improvisers who were rehearsing their impersonation skills on each other and about to descend on us.
As an arts journalist, I was a sitting duck for both interrogation and caricature. I was soon to see my every gesture and word repeated in a dramatic context, exaggerated and woven into the scenario of a school reunion.
Happily, I wasn’t the only one. There was the perpetually smiling Chris, a mild-mannered Centrelink employee by day but who knew what by night. And Darlene from Norfolk Island, who had a passion for old Toranas and trips to Bali.
This was all grist to the mill for the sometimes unkind but always very witty improvisers.
In fact, as one of them confided to me early in the evening while she prepared a check-sheet on our physical characteristics, larger-than-life personalities and gestures were much easier to imitate than subtle mundanity.
Happily, there was little of that to bother them.
In the end, the improvisers performed, with only a 10 minute break to prepare, a full comic play using what they had seen during the first half interrogation, and I for one was bowled over.
Byrne says, “In-Person-8 is unashamedly lightweight”, but I would beg to differ. There is something extraordinarily affecting in seeing yourself reworked on stage and seeing a group of experts seizing on physical characteristics you might not even be aware of.
Byrne says, “You won’t have to think hard to enjoy this one, but the process has been fascinating to be a part of, in the sense of learning how people perceive you……, or perhaps your friend, whom you might accidentally volunteer to be impersonated.”
I’d recommend it to any of you game enough, but if you don’t want to get up on stage, just have a look and a laugh.
“In-Person-8” by Impro ACT, at The Street Theatre, 7.30pm September 11-20, with
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