Where in the world did that funny idea come from? At the Impulse Festival, Toronto’s first international festival of improvised theatre, the laughs come from just about everywhere! Four days of shows and workshops by world-class improv groups from Australia, Canada, Europe and India opened last night at Soulpepper with a new edition of The Script Tease Project, by the instigators of the Impulse Festival, Soulpepper resident company the National Theatre of the World. And don’t miss, starting Friday at 3 p.m., the world’s longest improvised live soap opera.
Three performances began the festival in the Distillery last night. At Soulpepper’s Michael Young theatre, Toronto’s NTOW was followed by The School of the Night (London, England). Then at the Tank House, a “Mash up” of Crumbs Garage (Winnipeg and Atlanta, Georgia), and Improv Comedy Mumbai (from, wait for it, Mumbai, India). Every day till Sunday, different pairings of troupes will take the stage together for international mash ups.
For the opening act, the awarding winning NTOW—on-and-off-stage duo Naomi Snieckus and Matt Baram, joined by guest Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway?—brought us their latest Script Tease, an improvised play built on the opening two pages of script written for the occasion by a guest playwright, this time by Rick “MacHomer” Miller (currently starring in Canadian Stage’s reprise of Venus in Fur). The actors see the pages for the first time, and perform them in cold-read, only after receiving audience suggestions which they incorporate into the story they spontaneously create beyond the end of the second page. Miller titled his script teaser Crazy Money which had social activist Glen and artsy Shirley enter a TV studio where a guy named Crazy (Mochrie) is manically hosting his show about getting rich. From the moment Soulpepper Artistic Director Albert Shultz had taken the stage to introduce this opening act of the festival, the audience had been jittery with excitement. Add to that a good teaser by Miller and the combined improv prowess of Mochrie, Snieckus and Baram, and you have a play like the world has never seen, and will never see again.
A 55-hour improvised soap opera (they’re going for a world record) begins at 3pm, Friday December 13th at the Young Centre, in 105-minute episodes, with new episodes beginning every two hours. Admission is by donation and all proceeds go to Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto. The Soap-a-thon, being live streamed at soulpepper.ca/webcast.aspx, will feature Dana Andersen of Die-Nasty (Edmonton), and appearances by Colin Mochrie, George Stroumboulopoulos, Sean Cullen, Linda Kash, Nicky Nasrallah, and members of the international improv troupes. (Note: Sunday from 1:00am to 8:45am the Soap-a-thon will be performed at Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor St West, and then continues back at the Young Centre from 9:00am to 10:00pm.)
Meanwhile on other stages in and around the Young Centre, these troupes from around the world are presenting other improv shows as well as offering beginner and advanced workshops in various aspects of theatrical improvisation.
Other participating troupes include Gordon’s Big Bald Head (Edmonton), Combats Absurd (Lyons, France), Die Gorillas (Berlin, Germany), Secret Impro Theatre (Melbourne, Australia), and several supporting musicians. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go watch my soap.
Soulpepper's Impulse Festival, Dec. 12-15
Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice.