#cssd

The irony of our time is that we are getting older then ever and yet our culture fetishises youth - we don’t often get to see what it is really like to be 70 or 80 or 90, on a daily basis, unless our work concerns these age groups.

That’s why I am super-excited that my work has, at least temporarily, brought me into contact with six people of that generation. With my academic researcher hat on, I’m sitting in on rehearsals for Improbable’s new show at the National Theatre, Lost Without Words. The idea is to enable six former stars of the stage to return to performing without using a script. The show will be made up every night anew, by the actors themselves.

Improbable’s Artistic Directors Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson - themselves veteran improvisers - have undertaken to teach the sprightly ensemble some key tricks to help see them through this unlikely challenge.

It’s week 1, day 1 and I’m thinking there is nearly 400 years of professional theatrical experience in this room, give or take! The actors have all met before in various situations and they have done two workshops with Phelim and Lee over the last few years. The proceedings begin with the rehearsal ritual of passing an object around the circle and getting everyone to check in. There is much excitement and some apprehension in the room. I’m a bit surprised when one actor confesses she is afraid of the process because there is no character to hide behind. I am even more surprised when I find out later that this group of actors are not only standing up to their own age-related limitations but also to a stigma about improvisation itself held by many of their peers. ’Improvisation - I wouldn't be seen dead doing it’, they’d say in a RADA-style RP voice. In a break, another actress opens up to me as soon as I sit next to her to say ‘hello’. She wants to cry, she says. She does NOT want a character to hide behind. If you can’t accept yourself now, when will you? This work makes her six years old, she says. She is 86 but she keeps rather active and athletic so she feels more like a 68. This work though…! They are healers, Phelim and Lee. Magicians. She trusts them completely.

Lee does a really good pep talk and this seems to put them all at ease eventually. There will be a showing at the end of the week, but it will just be some people in the room together for about an hour. All they need to do is just be there as honest and awake as they can...

Deeply reassuring wisdom is pouring out of Phelim and Lee:

Being older makes you carry a story of your own - there's no need to prove yourself. It’s a unique perspective most of us don't usually get to see.

If we set anything, it will be to make sure it is different every night.

Improvisation lets you see people unfolding like a flower - it is beautiful.

Sometimes the scenes are like dreams.

You have to have confidence not to perform for the sake of performing and a trust that the audience can see a story in stillness and silence.

If you feel embarrassed - what if you fictionalise that feeling, turn it into a character?

What if it happens again and you feel you can’t do it again because you’ve done it already?

Do it again, and again and again - the audience will think you are a genius!

Articulate it. Then ask yourself how you feel about it. Go with it. Trust it.

Improvising is not about having lots of ideas but having one idea very clearly and adding to it. The key skills are: Slowing down, Really listening to another person (and playing with it), Really listening to yourself. Not having lines to remember frees you up to do that.

By the following morning’s check in the person who said the day before that she was afraid about not having a character to hide behind declares ‘This morning I was lying in my bath thinking: God, if I never manage to get out of this bath again, thank you for yesterday!’. There is laughter thundering around the circle.

It makes them feel alive being on stage, of course. It gives their life meaning to be doing their calling. It holds them up, it bolsters their frailties. Isn’t it the same with all of us? When you truly have a calling you can never retire from it. They are opening like flowers - still! - and it is so beautiful to watch...

They did get to the end of week 1 and they did two public sharings. Some people in a room together for an hour. Slowing down together. Really listening. Really rooting for each other. Chuckling. Holding our breaths. Feeling the freedom. Really letting the magic happen.

The second week of rehearsals is starting this week - and I truly can’t wait.”