Bubble Soup

Impro Theatre ACT

QL2 Theatre

Jan 28-30

Directed by Casper Schjelbred

Bubble Soup was a three night season of improvisation presented by Impro Theatre ACT, that was the product of a five day workshop with visiting improvisation teacher Caspar Schjelbred from Paris. It used a form that Caspar has created with his company ‘The Improfessionals’ called Organic Improvisation. It was performed by the nine actors who had been in the workshop, including Caspar and Impro Theatre ACT founder Nick Byrne, and a musician.

As I understand it, the idea of Organic Improvisation is that actors alternately dance and freeze, until one is inspired to use the shape they catch their body in to begin a scene from. Other actors do or don’t join the scene as they see fit, and when one actor feels the scene is over, they spin back into a dance until the next scene begins. There is no through line, continuing plot or theme, but a scene may follow on from some previous scene and themes may emerge. The work is partially based on Ira Seidenstein’s Quantum Theatre actor training method. Ira has been one of my teachers and mentors over many years, and I was in Brisbane with Caspar for a three week training led by Ira a week earlier.

I have seen a few Impro Theatre ACT shows, mostly some time ago. Then they were stuck in the one to four minute game competitive format based on Theatresports, with actors desperately playing for laughs. While entertaining in a way, no scenes came out of it that were interesting of themselves. I know that Impro Theatre ACT has been working hard to reinvent itself and the form, as have companies around Australia, and I hope Caspar has given the company an injection to inoculate against the staleness of the two minute game form.

Bubble Soup did not ask the audience for themes, play for laughs, or pander to the lowest common denominator. It had many interesting and intriguing scenes, including an older teenage boy taking a young innocent girl out on a date; a witch brewing magic potions with fingernails donated by a professional manicurist; duelling knights who finally revealed their homoerotic love for each other and marry; a child’s toy collection coming to life, and much more. This kind of work is a beautiful testament to the breadth of human imagination, with so many unpredictable ideas leaping out of the simple shapes of human bodies.

The evening had its faults and dissatisfactions. While every scene started from the physical shape of an actor’s body, too often the physical slipped away as the actors started to speak, and we were again left with talking heads. There was a sameness in the styles and rhythm of the show. There was one musical played over three scenes, and a musical finale, and one touching monologue, but most scenes were two or three actors having a conversation, usually a very serious conversation. Ironically, I found myself wanting more laughs in this show. The greatest and most serious flaw was the reluctance of the actors to go to powerful emotions. We never saw an Othello smother his beloved Desdemona out of jealousy, nor an Oedipus put out his eyes in shame. There were neither tears nor bellows of rage, no achingly tender kisses nor anyone frozen in terror. No scenes were followed through to the emotional peaks that are the stuff of great theatre. This of course is a huge ask for a cast who have studied a form for five days.

Bubble Soup was a daring experiment in the quest to make interesting and moving improvisational theatre, and I hope Impro Theatre ACT keep exploring this kind of work.