SPARK
BATS Theatre (Out-Of-Site) Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington
17/09/2013 - 17/09/2013
Production Details
A breathtaking evolution in improvisation. Jason Geary, Rik Brown and Karl McConnell take to the stage to tell one single narrative using nothing but each other for inspiration.
Three minds. One story. No gimmicks.
Jason Geary has been involved with Australia’s premiere improvisation company, Impro Melbourne, as performer, director and co-creator in many of the company’s productions for ten years, including sell out comedy festival shows, Late Night Impro and Celebrity Theatresports. Jason is a former Australia national Theatresports champion.
Karl McConnell has been improvising for ten years and is one of the country’s top improvisors whose talents are in constant demand. Karl has worked nationally, through Europe and with Impro Melbourne, Australia’s premiere improvisation theatre company, as a performer, director and teacher.
Rik Brown developed a love of improvisation during his days studying at Rusden. After he graduated in 1996, he began performing with Impro Melbourne. Rik has performed throughout Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore and is well known for his appearance in Melbourne Comedy Festival shows, ‘Late Nite Impro’ and ‘Celebrity Theatresports’.
With 17 shows in 5 days, the New Zealand Improv Festival is bound to tickle your tastebuds.
Book your tickets now at BATS Theatre (Out of Site)
($18 / $14)
or email book@bats.co.nz to see all three shows in one night for $36!
Date/Time
Date(s) – 17/09/2013
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Witty one-liners and satisfying reincorporations
Review by Hannah Smith 18th Sep 2013
Spark is sharp. It stars three Melbourne improvisers – Rik Brown, Karl McConnell and Jason Geary – in a fifty-five minute narrative which is, of course, made up on the fly. In this performance the show takes the form of a gangster interrogation, New York City style: a couple of guys explaining to the boss how the deal went bad.
While I can recount the details – a mob boss with no comprehension of metaphor, his sidekick who moonlights as a perfumier, an obsession with pie charts sprung from a tragic history with pies – the beauty is the speed and surety of the improv, the witty one-liners flowing thick and fast, and satisfying reincorporations with nothing left by the wayside.
These guys don’t take any offers from the audience, and the first few minutes are a slow build as they figure out what they’re doing and how they’re doing it – but they soon have the house in the palm of their hand, and roaring with laughter.
The story is smaller in scope, tighter and less absurd than you see in a lot of improvised comedy, with the arc being created by the shifts of status between the characters. There are a lot of meta-improv jokes, which play well with this (high percentage fellow improvisers) audience. Though they miss a couple of great opportunities for final resolution as they seek out a joke ending, the final moments see the audience laughing and applauding wildly.
Good times.
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