Shows at the Festival

In addition to these evening shows, we are also running Theatresports™ Without Borders special school matinees.

Theatresports™ The Main Event

Theatresports™, the world's most popular improvisation format played in its original, anarchic Canadian way—Keith Johnstone style. This competition offers a fabulous chance to see all the international guests and local stars battling it out in the impro ring for the glorious title of Spontaneous Global Combustion Masters. Side-splitting hilarity mixed with gripping theatre and competitive improvisation at its international best!

enCompass

Improvisation's cultural exchange! Each night will be directed by a performer from a different country introducing us to a new style and approach to improvisation. This fascinating series reveals the many ways that the rich and varied elements of improvisation are used to create theatre. Narrative, comedy, character, sound, silence, movement and more - there are no limitations to what can be created.

Australia flag Improvised Shakespeare directed by Kate Herbert (Sept. 7)

Never before seen Bard plays improvised before thine eyes.

Australia flag International Bingo Board of Doom by Calamity Wayne (Sept. 8)

Fast-paced improvised comedy, featuring the well-lubricated brains of Calamity Wayne and international guests. Random plot twists, audience suggestions and a mischievous Emcee create havoc for the improvisers as they strive to keep their story lines intact.

USA flag Triple Play directed by Dan O'Connor (Sept. 9)

A three part movie, a three part musical and a three part stylised play all together in one great show! "LA TheatreSports brought their Triple Play format into town and wowed the crowd with their styles acumen." Jeff Catanese

Australia flag Open To Suggestion by Rebecca De Unamuno (Sept. 10)

Rebecca goes it alone. Having won the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's 2005 Moosehead Award, this show sparkles with skill, wit and improvisational magic. Rebecca plays three characters, as decided by audience suggestions. No two are ever the same. No-one knows who will enter, not even the performer! This is a show absolutely not to be missed.

Canada flag Smells Like a Song (Sept. 13)

This improvised musical, where the audience is the musical director, was created in Edmonton, Canada. Members of the audience are given roses and, whenever they feel it is time for a song during the show, they throw the rose and yell "Smells Like A Song". On cue, the musician plays and the improviser or improvisers must create a song based on what was last said or done. You are in control! Get there early and sit up front to be given a rose of power!

Sweden flag The Bergman Harold directed by Per Gottfredsson (Sept. 14)

Per Gottfredsson will direct this show combining two well known styles into one new show: Del Close's improvisation form "Harold" infused with the style of iconic Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.

What is a Harold?
A jazz like form incorporating scenes, games and monologues to create an improvised collage inspired by a single word.
Who is Ingmar Bergman?
In his own words (Bergman in John Simon's book Ingmar Bergman Directs, 1972): "I want very much to tell, to talk about, the wholeness inside every human being. It's a strange thing that every human being has a sort of dignity or wholeness in him, and out of that develops relationships to other human beings, tensions, misunderstandings, tenderness, coming in contact, touching and being touched, the cutting off of a contact and what happens then."
USA flag City Life by Randy Dixon (Sept. 15)

"A great city is, to be sure, the school for studying life." Samuel Johnson

Does living in Melbourne change you? What effect does this city have on our psyche? How is Melbourne haunted for each of us? City Life explores the connections that people make with each other and to the world by living in the city. Through the use of personal story and scene work, the cast will deconstruct Melbourne past, present and future. The improvised exploration of our hopes, dreams and failures will open the themes underlying each of us as we live our City Life.

This show has toured Canada, the US and Europe, and has had extended seasons in Seattle, Stockholm and Berlin.

Australia flag Mortal Coil by Patti Stiles (Sept. 16)

Mortal Coil is directed, improvised story telling. As the actors build the story, the director seeds each scene with narrative twists, game structures, theatrical devices, moral dilemmas, relationships, secrets and surprises, keeping the story unpredictable and the actors on their toes.

In theatre we are interested in those extraordinary moments that alter the course of a day, of a life, of the world. Mortal Coil allows the actors to be believable and ordinary, and then to be changed and affected by an extraordinary moment, playing out the results of that moment with snowballing momentum and blinding clarity.

USA flag D&D Impro directed by Dan O'Connor (Sept. 17)

Like Dungeons and Dragons this improvisation style is a ride into the unknown filled with twists and turns. Improvisors must survive the creative maze armed only with their imagination and skill.

The Melting Pot

An exotic blend of improvisers spiced with the unknown and simmered over a high skill level. Served fresh on a bed of laughs and enjoyed as a late night treat. This is where the biggest risks are taken and the rewards are at their greatest.

Australia flag How About This?! directed by Jason Geary (Sept. 9)

Improvisers create an idea, a beginning - then they pitch it to the other improvisers. Will it fly, or will it fail?!

Australia flag Oblique Strategies by Andrew Bayly (Sept. 10)

Based on a deck of cards containing Oblique Strategies (invented by Brian Eno), improvisers will be dealing with such inspirations as

  • Abandon desire.
  • Abandon normal instructions.
  • Ask people to work against their better judgement.
  • Be dirty.
  • Be extravagant.
  • Bridges (build, burn).
  • Change ambiguities to specifics.
  • Change specifics to ambiguities.
USA flag The Hell Show by Brian Lohman, directed by Dan O'Connor (Sept. 16)

Improvisers are trapped in purgatory and they have to sing their way out of hell!

USA flag Harold directed by Randy Dixon (Sept. 17)

Harold is a jazz-like form incorporating scenes, games, and monologues to create an improvised collage inspired by a single word. Invented by Del Close.