The Nursery Theatre is a mainstay within the world of improvisation, and they have continued to perform and support their fellow performers during these very trying times. It was an absolute pleasure to be asked to come along to their ‘Improv News Hour’ to see that the craft of ‘improv’ is alive and kicking albeit it in a digital environment.
Tonight, we were treated to a news show from the Nursery news team. We met Muffins Miami and Gravy Cambridge the co-anchor’s, Tikki Manila the interviewer, Cherry Cumberland the roving field reporter and Figgy Amsterdam the sports reporter. The weather report was provided by Daal Von Doncaster.
After turning up at the news station wearing no trousers, Gravy Cambridge and team introduced the news item – ‘Scientists have discovered real magic exists’. The unusual phenomenon of spouse’s levitating has caused some concern. ‘What do you do, wrap them like a burrito?’ Sound advice by the way, if you come across this problem, but there was some dissent against magic in the town of Scrambleton, It’s those muggles you know! An interesting question was raised – ‘If a person levitates too high and a plane flies under them, what happens?’ We’ll leave that one to your own imaginations.
Handing over to Daal Von Doncaster for a weather forecast, she predicted fog and rather unusually, the need for sunglasses (in the world of improv, anything goes). And will someone please give Muffins Miami a donut!
Moving to the sports report, Figgy Amsterdam is on location at the South West Regional Cheese Throwing Contest. The betting is hotting up with the favourite being a 4-1 bet on Brie and the chance of a lovely fondue later.
Finally, Tikki Manila interviews popular actress Dame Caramel Croydon who takes a shine to the stunning cheekbones of her interviewer and invites him up to her room, ‘and don’t bring any friends’, nudge nudge wink wink. Her ardour dies when Tikki reads out his last Twitter question, ‘Are you a has been?’, the cold shoulder is dramatically administered.
The skill of being able to think on your feet is a remarkable one and these improvisers have these skills finely tuned. The witty names added to the humour and the rapport between the performers made this show a joy to watch. The performers tonight were Chris Read, Rachel Cader, Jennifer Banister, Kristen Drenning, Anis Qizilbash, Jorge and Victoria Smith. The team at The Nursery Theatre have a wide range of activities for both trained actors and the curious beginner, go along to their website https://thenurserytheatre.com/ and take a look. If you fancy trying something new, join in one of their classes and see if it’s for you or just watch one of their shows and enjoy seeing the artform of improvisation in the hands of master craftspeople.
Reviewer: Caroline Worswick
Reviewed: 20th February 2021