An Improbable Musical – Hackney Empire

Picture: Jane Hobson

An Improbable Musical continues at Hackney Empire, London until 26 October 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

The curtain rises on a stage with the band to the left, a platform with a tower and staircase, shelves at the rear with barely discernible props etc and an assortment of chairs and tables.

Josie Lawrence walks on to tell us that they have no script and no idea what the evening is going to be about. Lawrence then solicits suggestions for a good place. Marrakesh, Downing Street and various others are rejected in favour of a loudly shouted “herb garden”. A feelgood sentence results in “the murder was horrible, yet the wind was whispering” and for a word that describes a state “lackadaisical” is decided on.

And off we go. Niall Ashdown and Ruth Bratt improvise a comic scene about a neighbour stealing coriander from her neighbour’s herb garden which segues into the possibility that her lusting after him was behind it all. A group of old people discover a murder in the basement of the flats, a body is created from sheets of brown paper. A pile of dust is discovered to be edible, possibly penicillin.

Random scenarios continue interspersed with improvised songs, Lawrence has a particular gift for rhyming and sings with an impressive belt voice. The four-piece band under Christopher Ash improvises alongside the singing and sound a fine ensemble. The percussive improvisation often recalls Sondheim’s pointillist score for Sunday in the Park With George.

A scene between Bratt and fictional husband Lee Simpson (who also directs) about the breakdown of a marriage (possibly because of her lust for the herb growing neighbour) is involving and poignant.

We get a clever creation of a duck puppet from cups and saucers and a teapot (Aya Nakamura and Clarke Joseph-Edwards) that doesn’t seem to relate to anything that has gone before, which triggers a scene with truant schoolgirls feeding ducks. A random conversation about a girl imprisoned in a shed, a discussion about her attempts to escape, and we are on a railway station where Simpson seems to be fleeing his failed marriage, and there’s an intrusion by the station guard who wants photos to put on social media in order to prove the station does get used. Lawrence arrives to announce she is also running away, with the girl from the shed (Nakamura) until they all decide to return, or some such thing, resulting in a feel good chorus and a happy ending.

The  actors are superb in their improvisations, thinking on their feet, only occasionally hesitating to take it somewhere else, supporting each other whether by the introduction of new characters or moving furniture around them. The circuitous route whereby the two initial characters are eventually returned to for the resolution and finale is impressive. The suggestions at the start of the show are worked into the improv.

And yet it mostly feels like a drama school improvisation, an exercise one would do to flesh out characters from a scripted play. The actors often break the fourth wall, or giggle self-consciously, except for Simpson who stays firmly in character even when miming and is emotionally involving. The improv grips because we are wondering where they are going next or how they are going to dig themselves out of a hole, but it never feels dangerous or real.

If you’re a fan of improvised theatre or just want to try something a little bit out of the ordinary, then get yourself to Hackney. We are assured that there will be a completely different show each night and I’d be curious to see it again to see if this is so, or whether there is a loose framework around which they fit in the improvisation. Experimental musicals with disconnected songs and plots are not new, American Al Carmines was doing them in the late 1960s in musicals like Promenade. A scripted musical arising out of improvisation is a tantalising prospect that could have a greater impact.

Leon Ferguson