#lostwithoutwords

“I don’t mean to be ageist, but I really love old people. I love their abundant stories, the quiet power of their life experience, the way they can so easily not give a damn. I love the way they are comfortable in their clothes, the spats they have with their aching limbs, their courage and determination, and the occasional cackles and hisses that might spark out of them...

LOST WITHOUT WORDS show diary from Assistant Director, Caroline Williams. Part 2

At our new home in the Jerwood Space, the company settled in to going more deeply into the world of improvisation. We were able to feed back on the previous performances and discuss how it felt to have an audience. Lynn Farleigh admitted how difficult it was not to beat oneself up when you find yourself saying no or you realise the scene is unclear. Phelim repeated a phrase that has continued to be a point of comfort for everyone: improvisation is impossible.

…And perhaps in that phrase was another clue as to why it is so exciting.

You never crack it.

It’s ongoing research.

With this in mind we defined what it is Improbable are doing in this theatrical experiment: they are experimenting. The cast were encouraged to enjoy it when it doesn’t go right. Lee described the analogy of a warrior who has already been shot so many times that it’s impossible for the audience to kill him. Audience and players are complicit in creating an event in which there is nothing to lose, or everything, and that’s absolutely fine.

Lee reminded us of the Lord Chamberlain and the recent illegality of improvising. This is why Keith Johnstone (Improbable’s patron, pioneer of improvisation) called his work at the Royal Court, ‘experiments’, rather than plays. Tim Preece remembered having censorship edits given to him in a play in the early 60s. Joan Littlewood regularly got into trouble with police for making shows that had an element of improvising.

LOST WITHOUT WORDS show diary from Assistant Director, Caroline Williams.  Part 1 

Week 1 – Learning to Improvise

“You Can’t Hide, You Know” – Charles Kay

 THE COMPANY

The company of Georgine Anderson, Caroline Blakiston, Anna Calder-Marshall, Lynn Farleigh, Charles Kay, Tim Preece, directors Lee Simpson and Phelim McDermott, lighting designer Colin Grenfeld, musical director Steven Edis and stage manager Fana Cioban sat in an opening circle.

The group of actors gathered are elders in the sense that they have more than five decades’ experience of wearing the skin of different characters. Anna Calder-Marshall was Cordelia to Sir Lawrence Oliver’s King Lear. Quite simply, the cast are extraordinarily skilled at what they do.

What we will discover throughout the first week is how this skill can be held within a new set of skills: the skills of improvisation.

In all of Improbable’s projects, large or tiny, improvisation will be present somewhere in its artistic genesis. Both Phelim and Lee share a clear passion for the alchemy of the unknown: players stepping out together into an unformed space, telling an, as yet, untold story, the audience going with them as the action takes its first breath - a moment of true aliveness. To actors used to knowing at least the outline of what will happen as they step out onto the stage, this idea is more than a little intimidating. Slowly but surely we spend the first week equipping the company with what they’ll need to turn this perilous leap into a joyous free fall.

The work over the first week can be distilled into the following principles:

SAY YES & BE POSITIVE 
These are both ways of saying ‘yes’ (as are all of the provocations) but this also suggests that entering a scene without being positive about it, i.e committing to it, will mean that the audience won’t feel comfortable in watching the action.

 SLOW DOWN 
This doesn’t mean being slow, what it means is taking enough time to notice what you are feeling and what is going on around you. One of the main habits when an audience arrive is for improvisers to speed up, in so doing they lose connection to themselves and to each other.

 OVER-DEFINE 
In its simplest sense this means putting the focus on giving an audience the who, what and where of a scene. Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you? We played with how to do this quickly and most efficiently.

 AN AUDIENCE


Lee Simpson cannily realised before we started rehearsals that having regular showings to a live audience was going to be essential in this process, so at the end of our first week we had two showings at The New Diorama Theatre in Euston to a small audience. The set up would be simple: Phelim and Lee would move pieces of furniture into the space and our company would improvise a scene in response. Lee would choose the players and sometimes a game would be suggested.

Our company took their time and some beautiful scenes emerged.

Our second showing proved a little more difficult. Nerves took over and the mantra of ‘slow down’ faded away as the scenes got more and more complicated.

When we regrouped it was interesting to hear about how this pattern is normal when learning to improvise.

You don’t suddenly crack it.

It’s more like a spiral.

You begin to get your feet, bad habits return and you go backwards, then you step out again and get a little further, and then back you go before going out again... and so on.

If the received prejudice is that elderly people are afraid of learning new things then the company of Lost Without Words is an important testament to throwing that idea out the window. With each week they get more and more brave and concentrated on learning the skills they need to do this work.