How many descriptions or definitions of love can there be? How many quotes for that matter? And who better to explore these than Cupid himself, alias host Jason Geary. Geary held a workshop earlier this week and from it gathered and prepared the ten improvisors we now see: Angie Ford, Caitlin McGrath, Christine Brooks, Elle Bell, Jaklene Vukasinovic, Jim Fishwick, Laura Irish, Malcolm Morrison, Matt Powell, Rik Brown.

Cupid enters in a spray of glitter, his bare chest contrasting oddly with Cupid’s halo and a pair of wings. He begins by asking his ten students of love for a quote or comment on the subject. My favourites among these:
“Love’s like a pigeon: you feed it once and it keeps coming back”, and
“Love’s like a shoelace: the hard bit’s at the beginning and the end.”

The show now launches into improvisation proper. There’s a playlist to start us off with offers of scenarios (Musician: Matt Hutton). Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ evokes “How did you feel when the ball didn’t come your way?” and what Is the best improvisation of the evening. It manages psychological exploration of an encounter group kind and a scrum with the ball as metaphor.

Then we have ‘I’m Walking on Sunshine’ featuring an upset phone call to Mum from the girl who’s too tall to be asked to dance, ‘I’ll Follow You Into The Dark’ set in a ski camp in which a provocative woman ends up in the spa pool with two men, and finally ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ where an airport farewell concludes with an abandoned lover’s request for a red wine.

We hear once again from our ten students of love – what have they learned? And from Cupid: “Love is an opportunity to do a show like this.”

Just one general recommendation: diction needs to be clearer. Consonants – and most words end in consonants – need to be heard.  

Cupid awards hearts to all audience contributors. Luckily, he has a sack full. 

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