THEATER REVIEW: Improvised Shakespeare Company

The Improvised Shakespeare Company
Directed by Blaine Swen
Presented at iO Chicago

Disclosure: I was comped for this show by Joe Janes, who is a member of the cast.

Saturday night. Wrigleyville. 10:00 PM. Lots of discarded trash strewn just about everywhere the eye can see, much of it within feet of half full garbage bins. Puddles of stuff - puke, piss, water, other stuff. Throngs of drunken kids congesting the sidewalks - Cubs dudes, party boys, nineteen-year-old girls in revealing minis wearing far too much makeup and trying to look older while slightly stumbling and texting at the same time. Cabs and cars and guys on bikes fill the street; every few feet reveals yet another hip hop soundtrack playing tunelessly out the open doors of yet another bar.

And I'm here to see some improvised Shakespeare at iO.

Recently, in a conversation with a fellow old school improv guy, he made the pronouncement that Chicago is no longer as ahead of the improvisational curve as we think we are. That while the UK is about ten years behind us in innovation and overall quality, most parts of the States are nearly caught up and that part of that is an arrogant laziness of the Chicago mindset. We're Chicago - the birthplace of modern improvisation - we're badass.

The Del Close Theater on the second floor of iO looks like the old Second City in design and style. There is the required shrine to Close on the far wall next to the bar (hosted by the affable Michael Lehrer, winner of this year's MAELSTROM for WNEP and one of the most talented, and in my opinion, underrated cats in Chicago.) On the stage left side of the stage is a huge projection screen with a pre-show slide show promoting the various shows in the theater interspersed with hyperbolic testimonials from "luminaries" like Andy Richter and Andy Dick that, indeed, iO is the most important place on the planet Earth to learn and experience theatrical improvisation.

A beer and a glass of ice water.

And the show begins.

It starts like just about every improv show in the last 50 years has started - a group of six white guys take the stage amidst musical bombast (except for the fact that they're wearing a version of breeches and stylized tunics, they could be any group of improvisers from any city) and explain that what they'll be doing is improvising the opening night (and closing night) of a completely original Shakespearean play in two acts. They get a suggestion. A douchebag in the audience screams of "Lost: The Shakespeare Play" and I cringe. The trap of getting such a pop culture icon for a suggestion is that the archetypes and jokes inherent in spoofing it will undermine the genre exercise itself.

My reservations are proved quickly meritless. Ross Bryant (easily one of the best improvisers in the genre I've ever seen) launches into a prologue that ties the world of Lost with the world of Shakespeare's The Tempest seamlessly and in rhyming couplets no less. And I'm hooked.

The plot is silly and loosely plays with conventions of both the titular television mindfuck and the weirdest play in the Bard's folio - a shipwreck, a Caliban-like character, a sorcerer, his daughter, a door in the floor of the jungle, a smoke monster, factions splintering the castaways, a rescue party organized by Penelope. It's all fun and very, very funny but what sets this evening apart from countless other genre improv sets is the incredible attention to detail and easy familiarity these guys have with the bard.

Nary a piece of information uttered is discarded - a throwaway bit in the opening shipwreck scene inevitably becomes a point of character exploration in the second act that ends up becoming a sly snark at Lost, Shakespeare and improvising itself. A quick, funny bit of wholly accidental plot contrivance between Rich Prouty and Blaine Swen develops into a play within the play that hits on the flashback sequences of Lost and is a freaking riot to boot.

It's also apparent that these cats have done their homework and that doing this show for the better of two and a half years has paid off in spades. They, almost to a man, understand the rhythms of iambic pentameter and also know when to break out of it to get a laugh without sacrificing the integrity of the scenes or characters. They also understand how to weave innocuous jokes into big moments and consistently mine the fun out every piece of interesting information (by naming the wrecked ship the Crispin Glover, there becomes a treasure trove of little throwaway bits involving their knowledge of the bizarre actor and almost every one of them lands.)

My friend may be right - Chicago improv has become a bloated mess, like the indie band scene was in Seattle in the nineties and stand-up become in NYC in the eighties. Perhaps there are lots of groups around the country doing innovative, substantive work. That said, you aren't going to find better work done anywhere than the Improvised Shakespeare Company.

Simply put, this was one of the most solid and fully realized improvised shows I've seen on any stage. Hats off to this group and, if you have any interest in seeing how Close's assertion that improvisation can be an end in itself as a night of great theater, this is the show to see.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company
Fridays at 8PM (and 10:30PM starting in August)
iO Chicago - 3541 N Clark St
773.880.0199
Tickets are $14.00