Sincerely, yours: an improvised love story
07/10/2010 - 09/10/2010
Production Details
2 lonely improvisers ISO FWB
must like laughing and taking risks.
social drinker ok.
no freaks.
looking for discrete audience to share a spontaneous night of wild passion and romance.
Love is many things to many people, and improv festival favourites Rebecca de Unamuno (Sydney, Australia) and Derek Flores (Calgary/ Wellington) explore the complex relationships within the courting ritual, all gleaned from audience suggestions.
Featuring Sebastian Morgan-Lynch on cello.
New Zealand Improv Festival
Tuesday 5th – Saturday 9th October 2010
6.30pm, 8pm, 9.30pm
$16 Full / $13 Concession / 3 Show Pass $40 and $30
1hr 5min
The New Zealand Improv Festival is back for its third year – bigger, edgier, funnier, and ready to attack Wellington with awesome!
Bringing the very best improv companies in NZ together with stupendous international acts, the NZ Improv Festival is a comedic carnival, completely dedicated to making it up as we go along.
Crumbs (Canada) and returning 2009 performer Rebecca De Unamuno (Sydney) are joined by groups from across NZ to showcase the best of improvisational theatre for your entertainment. Get ready to change the way you see spontaneous…
Using nothing more than their wit and gumption these purveyors of on-the-spot creation will transfix you to the stage, all the while treading that highwire between genius and disaster. Even if it fails… it still succeeds!
Participants
Wellington Improvisation Troupe (Wgtn), The Improvisors (Wgtn), The Court Jesters (Chch), The Con Artists (Akld) Rebecca De Unamuno (Sydney) and Crumbs (Canada)
NZIF CREW:
Artisic Director – Derek Flores
Producer – Merrilee McCoy
Musician – Robbie Ellis
Lighting – Darryn Woods
Publicist – Brianne Kerr
1hr 5 mins, no interval
Strong performances admirably lit
Review by Hannah Smith 08th Oct 2010
In Sincerely, Yours Derek Flores joins forces with Rebecca De Unamuno in a two person improvised love story that is one part funny, one part bitter and two parts sweet.
While Flores is a familiar face on the Wellington improv circuit, De Unamuno hails from Sydney: a fresh combination of experienced improvisers that you won’t have seen before and, if you miss the Saturday night performance, you won’t get a chance to see them again.
The show begins with a series of quotes regarding the nature of love, and the audience is prompted to fill the blank in the sentence: “Love is…”
Aided by these slender ask-fors, De Unamuno and Flores create a pair of hapless would-be romantics, and traverse the territory of an awkward love affair, from its uncomfortable beginnings to its fairly abrupt end.
Highlights were Derek as creepy community art teacher Pablo, and De Unamuno as martial artist/bookstore proprietor Tony.
The performances are very strong. Flores and De Unamuno are both excellent improvisers and they manage to negotiate their way around some potentially nauseating territory while still remaining on the right side of sweet, and create some really beautiful exchanges that would not be out of place in a scripted show.
The whole is lit admirably by Darryn Woods, who is doing the lights for the entire festival. Lighting improv must be tricky work and in Sincerely, Yours there are some really nice touches. I was particularly impressed by the flickering light in the movie scene.
The links between the ask-fors and the show are pretty tenuous, and I do not think the opening sequence did credit to the strong work of the show that followed.
What is remarkable about this piece is that it is easily as strong as any hour long love story that you might see at BATS at some other time of year. Two great performances from two talented improvisers.
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