It may be argued that court jesters of old, the monarchs’ fools, were the known world’s first improvisers. In medieval times, their very survival depended on their ability to conjure wit and wisdom spontaneously from whatever was happening, no matter what was thrown at them.  

Announced by electric keyboard minstrel Ben Kelly, who tickles his ‘ivories’ judiciously throughout the show, director Dan Allan enters, splendidly robed and crowned, as King Dan of Improvia. “Yorick has left us,” he reveals (did he get a better offer from Elsinor, perhaps?). So now King Dan must mount a trial to see who most deserves to wear the jester’s hat.  

As the four contestants enter – Isaac Thomas, Rachel Anastasi-Marais, Ali Little and Jana Eckhardt – King Dan reminds them (quoting Feste from Twelfth Night): “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

But while these four are tasked with producing (to paraphrase Hamlet’s nostalgia for Yorick) infinite jest, excellent fancy, gibes, gambols, songs and flashes of merriment to get the audience roaring, they will not be performing such skills themselves. Their challenge is to direct five Mummers – Ella Wells, Megan Ritchie, Susan Williams, Trubie Dylan-Smith and Gita Majumder – to produce the goods. So the quest is actually for a masterful Master of Fools.

Many rules apply. Each contender will direct a scene, usually including audience ask-fors, then the audience will cry out either “Huzzah!” or “Begone!” to determine whether the contender gets another go – confirmed by a ding on a bell from lighting operator Stevie Hancox-Monk – or the hat gets passed on. I suspect the initial dominance of “Begone!” has more to do with wanting to see what the next contender does than the quality of the actual improvs – all of which are impressive.  

Isaac – who styles himself as a “post pre-grunge industrial romantic” – asks for a breakfast food and a fruit, so Susan (they/them), abetted by Gita, finds themself making orange omelette for Trubie’s pirate captain, who shares wonderfully revealing inner thoughts. They think they’ve failed until reassured they have saved the captain’s life.

Rachel (whose style preference I don’t quite hear) gets a father and son to play with and sends them – Trubie and Ella – to an exotic restaurant where a prickly relationship is resolved by a tasty fish dish.

Asking for our most ordinary suburb and an aspiration leads Ali to prompt Megan and Susan become neighbours aspiring to grow the best tomato. One has lived there for decades while the other is a new arrival. It quickly emerges Megan, as Sam, is the newbie. Both manifest their prize tomatoes lovingly out of thin air and respond with alacrity to Ali’s rapid time-jumps to a point where a ‘retiring’ Doris passes her knowledge on to Sam. Ali values emotion in what she generates and gets plenty of it here. She gets to go again and a family gathering presided over by Ella’s formidable Aunt Jessica ensues.

Jana, who is into “weird stuff”, asks for animals which provokes a penguin family gathering for Christmas where fish is cooked in an ice oven. She throws in the absence of the mother and Porky Penguin (the ever-versatile Ella) gets to eulogise her through an inner monologue. Megan gets my vote for best penguin physicality and their collective attempt at a penguin group hug is poignantly funny.

Now King Dan hands each contestant three playing cards: a Joker, a Queen and a King, each of which has the power to either take the hat or move it one place forward or one place back. It emerges there is a special skill involved in choosing when to play which card.  

Having scored a ding, Jana casts all five as a jar of pickles causing Ella to worry about the prospect of one being plucked from their extremely close community – but when she suddenly disappears Trubie is hugely relieved to get a bit of floating space.  

I am realising an element in each scenario is being carried into the next to give a sense of continuity, be it food, families or a group hug becoming a jar of pickles.

Here I have to confess my scribbles in the dark have become mostly unintelligible as the contest heads up with much flourishing of cards. This much I recall: Susan tasked with responding to music sees them gently pinning things up on an invisible wall and Mega joining them for a lovely dance; Ella’s obsession with slime – which is one way to cope with substandard flats – brings Susan in as a dastardly landlord demanding long overdue rent; Susan, Gita and Megan play out a scene at a theme park where one of them is suffering from diarrhoea (when you ask from the audience you must receive); a Buzzy Bee scenario provokes a song where Trubie conjures “What’s the buzz with this fella / he is black and he is yella”; someone gets a peanut up their nose and has to wax lyrical about it …

Suddenly a sustained bell ring proclaims Jana the winner.

Well might she brag by quoting Lear’s Fool: “I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing.” She doesn’t of course; that would be foolish and contrary to this festival of agreeable collegiality wherein Masterfool marks yet another triumph. 

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