Simon Ward reviews Improv The Dead at The Bridewell Theatre

One of the joys of a Fringe festival is, of course, to move out of one’s comfort zone and try out something a bit different. I confess that the danger element of improvisational theatre has often left me cold – I am too worried that the whole edifice will implode under the weight of its own absurdities to relax and enjoy the show. Another area I tend to avoid is anything bloody or horrific – I am simply too squeamish. So the Improv The Dead company’s offer of an improvised zombie apocalypse show was a perfect candidate for a fish-out-of-water take as my last Camden Fringe review this year.

The large team (Rebecca Channon, Tim Dawkins, Adam Deane, Angus Dunican, Annabel Edmonds, Darren Jordan, Josh Hunt and Dan Luxton) do a brilliant job straightaway of setting all fears at ease – there is no doubt that we are in safe hands and that whatever nonsense is thrown at them will be deftly turned into laugh-out-loud comedy. Unnervingly, as we enter the theatre, the zombies have already taken over and are busy chewing through the vital organs of a victim. But reassuringly, they never attempt any audience participation beyond shouting out suggestions – it would be a bridge too far to have anyone on stage who wasn’t ready to immediately engage with whatever crazy idea started to play out.

In fact, a lot of the fun of the evening is seeing the actors deliberately setting virtually impossible challenges for each other. The conceit is that the actors form a film company and they are playing through scenes from one of their famous zombie movies. This allows for the action to be paused from time to time for points of clarification, or just to set up more comedy sketches or audience input. It is impressive how switched on they all remain – on heightened alert for anything they can cling onto for a joke or a bit of plot development. There is no hesitation in calling out some piece of nonsense uttered on the spur of the moment and turning it into a plot twist. It looks like a whole lot of fun to do, as well as really hard work.

While it did not exactly win me over to the zombie horror genre, it did make me believe that improv in the right hands can provide some of the genuinely funniest evenings you will ever experience in the theatre. Occasionally, in a regular comedy set, or even in a straight play, some of the best moments are when you notice something that has gone a bit wrong but they run with it and it ends up better than what was supposed to happen. It is an unspoken breaking of the fourth wall, all the better for being impromptu. And, on a bigger scale, that is what improv at its best can be, where the sweaty terror of the performers is alchemically transformed into comedy gold. Catch this show if you can, wherever it may show up next.

Improv The Dead played at The Bridewell Theatre, 14 Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8EQ as part of the Camden Fringe Festival on Saturday 23rd August