‘The Picture of Shellshock!’s Egg’ review
‘scratches an itch for direct, entertaining audience engagement that can’t be found elsewhere in the theatre community […] Shellshock! Improv will impress you’
On Sunday night, Shellshock! Improvised Comedy turned unrestrained creative energy into an hour-long routine in the Student Union’s Learning Lounge. There, an engaged audience enjoyed scene after scene of effectively delivered spontaneous comedy. Prompts varied, requiring actors to switch skills as fast-paced routines and pushed the dynamic group’s abilities to the limit. As an ensemble, the performance thrived. Jokes were most engaging when they came out of nowhere, which they often did, as the team worked off audience contributions that sent the actors to strange and frequently funny situations. With transitions smooth and none of the routines outstaying their welcome, Shellshock! excelled at churning out laughs from swift creativity.
At the core of its success was a strong ensemble cast. Etna Nebreda Boto, Tim Sypchenko, Icarus Gilbert, Alex McCaron, and Sophie Partis constantly shifted in tone and style to fit the prompt to their liking. Frequently this required working off each other in duos or larger groups; a feat successful because of palpable chemistry between the actors.
Scenes which played off the actors’ exceptional chemistry demand special praise. Especially funny was the “echo” prompt, which required actors to cut in and take over a scene by repeating a spoken line. Having the whole cast involved meant each took turns making the moment theirs. Furthermore, Partis and Gilbert walking ‘down the aisle’, as Tommy and Sandy respectively, showcased a rapidly developing physical comedy as the latter suddenly collapsed and the former responded hesitantly.
Games which required a rapid redeployment of jokes were most successful, as they quickly let the actors either change scene or latch onto a bit that got the audience laughing. One game where this worked required one member to shout “pan left” as duos took turns acting out a part of their scene in rotation. Intervention from Henry Cole through the show’s technical elements refined the comic timing, as music chimed in to match each scene’s progressing climax in an unexpected, often hilarious way.
By nature of the spontaneous form, some prompts landed better than others. The result is that games which go longform with a difficult prompt can sometimes suffer from a prolonged suspension of jokes. The last game in which actors played out a story thought up on the spot was one example of a game which would have benefitted from shortening. This is understandable when the direction of such a game depends entirely on an unforeseeable audience response.
Regardless, the willingness to pick up any audience prompt often benefitted the show’s capacity to reach strange places. The scene in which Gilbert had to convey the audience-chosen death scene, where he played a gardener dying from banana overdose who happens to be in an igloo, is one such example. Part of the fun was in watching the other actors attempt an interpretation of his moves; another part was the delight in watching how they deviated from the original prompt.
Here, improv comedy scratches an itch for direct, entertaining audience engagement that can’t be found elsewhere in the theatre community. If high-energy spontaneous comedy sounds appealing, Shellshock! Improv will impress you.
By Ivan Deverick.