Love, oh, love. It can be so great – and it can be awkward and kind of strange. It seems fitting, therefore, that romance is the subject tackled in Love, Possibly, the latest offering from Wellington Improv Troupe W.I.T. If there’s one thing you can say about improv, it is that sometimes it’s great, and other times it’s awkward and kind of strange.

Love, Possibly deals in the romantic comedy tropes with which we are all familiar. Boy meets girl, conflict, resolution, love. It is formulaic and yet strangely satisfying – qualities that make it ideal to adapt for a long form improvisation. The players are searching for love and bound to fail, on the way creating a cast of characters who are frequently out of their depth, gauche and tongue-tied in a comedy that is heart-warming and sweetly funny.

It is a strong format and one which will clearly develop over the course of the season. There is a lot of promise here, though more work on the overall structure is necessary – on opening night the beginning and ending worked very well, but the middle section kind of fell apart.

The introduction of a third storyline – two old men playing chess – was a good instinct, necessary to break up the action of the other plotlines, but it needed to be tied more tightly to the main story or the subject matter of the piece in order not to seem a digression, or excuse for those not playing the leads to have more stage time.

I wonder if this format might work better with five rather than six improvisers. This would give everyone more to do, and also force players to take on multiple characters from the get-go. It became confusing when players only took on a second character some distance into the story as we had not been primed to expect it.

That said, all six improvisers did a great job. I would have liked to see them introduced at the beginning so I could credit them for their good work. Luckily I am an amazing detective (thanks internet) and I can tell you that last night’s show was thanks to: Paul, Christine, Steven, Woody, Ali and Kirsten with excellent musical accompaniment provided by cellist Sebastian Morgan-Lynch.

Kirsten deserves special mention: she was an absolute stand out, not just for being an extremely likeable and watchable performer, but also for the solid work she did in pulling the storylines together and justifying much of the previous action in a few neat twists. Also, she’s pregnant. Great. I wish we saw more pregnant people on stage.

The set consists of four red boxes which are used to create a variety of locations. These were very successful at creating some environments, and indicating when we were returning to a previous location – the bar, for example – and I think this could be experimented with and expanded on. It would be helpful to both audience and players if the two main characters had a recognisable location that was signified spatially with these set pieces. It would let us know where we’re at. Figuratively and literally.

It is these kinds of nuts and bolts of making the format work that require attention. The show is successful overall, and the ending was really satisfying and funny, with some nice reincorporation tying everything together.

I think this is a great format with a lot of promise and I look forward to seeing how it will develop over the course of the season.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer