The New Zealand Improv Festival is at BATS Theatre all this week. See some of the country’s best practitioners and companies in unscripted theatre that’s devised before your face. That’s right – no scripts, no set plays. Here’s how it works – each show will have a frame for the show the improvisers will create.  Sometimes it will be a series of games (classic theatresports), sometimes they’ll ask you for a series of things (name, situation, vegetable etc) and sometimes they’ll just dive straight into the story without asking for anything. Any music or lighting is also improvised.

There’s an impressive line up of 9 different shows.

Improdome – A nightly competitive team show (Tuesday through Saturday)

This one time – An open improv performance (Tuesday through Saturday)

Nothing but the truth – Deliver your verdict – guilty or not guilty? (Tuesday only)

…In bed – Deals with love, sex, and relationships in a truthful, playful, and sometimes silly way. Features adult content (but not like that). (Wednesday only)

The Museum of broken relationships – Inspired by the detritus of romantic relationships. (Thursday only)

Grab bag – Anything could happen as improvisers (and excitable audience members) throw their names in the GrabBag to be drawn at random. (Thursday only)

Death comes to us all –  Explores the delicate balance between life and death (Friday only)

Kiddie time! – Takes the ways kids shows entertain kids and does it for bigger kids. (Friday only)

The circle of sound and story – An improvised performance of poetry, magic, fun and emotion (Saturday only)

Take advantage of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities* to see actors inspire each other on stage with spontaneous storytelling to delight and amaze you. They might even make you cry.

 

*improvised remember? It’s different every night.