This weekend (6th – 8th June) marks the very first Greater Manchester Improv Festival, running at the Kings Arms, Salford. To open up the weekend of improv shows and workshops was the wonderful Ladies Who Improv, an all-female troupe consisting of Millie Thorne, Ieva Bockute-Losjuk, Ursy Ambrose-Simpson and Ocean Cohen.
This was a short-form game-based show, which included many improv favourites such as Pillars, Four Corners and New Choice, as well as their own creation Father Tom. The group were genuinely a joy to watch and worked well together and were very quick-witted even during a game of pillars with an audience member who seemed only to have one thing on his mind… As anyone who has played the game with an audience pillar will know, a lot rests on the suggestions they give you. For those unfamiliar, this is (usually) a two-person scene where the players can tap their “pillar” when they need a word for something, or a sentence finished. This was a fun scene between Ursy and Ieva; however when suggestions were a little sexual, it could have been easy for the action to get a little icky, but the ladies handled it well and for that I applaud them.
4 Corners (sometimes called “Shift Left” in some circles) was a real highlight, where the ladies were stood in a square formation, and 4 completely different scenes were played, moving rapidly between them, each using a different prompt from the audience. With this being the first of the festival, the audience seemed a little shy in shouting out suggestions at the start, which didn’t give the group a lot to work with in some rounds, but they ploughed on regardless.
Another highlight was Father Tom, a game that the group created and were debuting at the festival. It was a take on the various guessing games, like Blind Date and Party Guest but with Father Tom (played by Millie) taking confession from the other 3. Their “sins” had been decided by the audience, however it did feel as though the prompts such as “Something you would get fired from work for”, could be difficult to get new suggestions for after a few performances. However the suggestion for “something you wouldn’t want your parents to find out you do” being “improv” was fantastic and made for some real laugh-out-loud moments.
There were a few moments that felt lacked pace, and the odd joke or bit that didn’t quite land, however that’s to be expected for a show completely improvised on the spot.
Overall this was a really fun show to start the festival with – a group who worked cohesively together and had a fun energy on stage and were genuinely a pleasure to watch.
Reviewer: Codie Wright
Reviewed: 6th June 2025
North West End UK Rating: