Never in my life did I expect to see grown men pretending to be raccoons, or see the bible rewritten to be about jelly babies instead of Jesus, but I suppose that’s the fun of the Edinburgh International Improv Festival. In the penultimate double bill of Saturday night at the Scottish Storytelling Centre we saw the Irish musical improv group Bumnotes belt out show tunes completely off the cuff, with Glasgow-based group Raintown performing right afterwards.
Musical improv is becoming increasingly popular and after watching Bumnotes’ performance I have no questions as to why. Funnily enough the suggested word was ‘garbageman’ which was a reference to an earlier performance done by The Imposters – clearly the audience are enjoying the improvisation as they are coming back for more! It was incredibly impressive watching the pianist improvise the songs and the attunement the whole cast had with him. With ballads, the classic ‘I want’ song, and a villain and sidekick rebuttal, this really did encapsulate the essence of a fully fledged musical. The cast even managed to layer some harmonies and call-and-response moments during the main hooks of the songs. The plot established a group of garbagemen with one particular garbageman desperate to find a wife who loved trash as much as he did, Travelling to the big city to find a wife he made friends with a friendly ex-tycoon raccoon who advised him that if he dressed well it didn’t matter that he smelled. Little did Garbageman know that this town was ruled by the school of Hard Knocks and Etiquette – a love for garbage was sinful here. But in classical musical fashion, Garbageman found a wife and lived happily ever after after defeating the etiquette headmistress by turning them into a raccoon. A true fever dream of a show but the sheer ridiculousness of it made it all the more impressive that the Bumnotes team were able to form a very cohesive narrative structure with what they were given. I could have watched them belt about raccoons and trash for hours – I want more!
Following up Bumnotes’ performance was a hard task but Raintown absolutely conquered it. Using the more classical Harold style of improv, Raintown was quite opposite to Bumnotes, but nevertheless nothing short of funny. Having been given the word ‘habits’ individual group members stepped forward to share their own habits. With some great source material to base their improv on – such as a sweet addiction and a girl who constantly chewed her hair. While each improv was humorous I did feel there was a lack of collaboration at times – the scenes showed promise at the start but each member took the story in a different direction leaving for a slightly irresolute narrative which most of the time ended up having to be cut off. Despite this, the scenes were amusing and I did appreciate that Riantown weren’t afraid to take the improv in a surreal direction with them embodying sweets at one point, and worshipping jellybean Jesus at another. Perhaps to develop the dynamism of the team it might be helpful to practice with improvisations more grounded in reality, just so to get familiar with each other, and their own styles. Even so, Raintown left me with a smile on my face – the situations they thought up were truly unique and I always love to see a showcase of work from fellow Scots – they capture a niche of humour no one else can!
That brings us to the end of the EIFF for myself for now, but as all the groups set the bar so high I can’t wait to see what EIFF will present us with next time around!
Reviewer: Jessie Martin
Reviewed: 22nd March 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
