Brighton Fringe review by Steve Bennett

This is something of a two fingers to Dustin Hoffman, the pre-show voiceover tells us, given that during rehearsals for The Merchant Of Venice he reputedly said: ‘You can’t improvise this shit.’

Of course the five members of Impromptu Shakespeare aren’t going to ad-lib Bard-worthy aperçus off the top of their collective head – although in the final act Jules Munns does come up with an incredibly pithy line, about which he’s understandably smug. 

Nor do they attempt to improvise in pentameter – wisely, for sure. Instead, their aim to capture the tone of the playwright’s work, based on a few common themes that are selected via an ingenious and fun ping-pong-ball based mechanism that puts a smile on the audience’s face before the play even starts.

The savvy troupe’s concessions to Elizabethan language extends to a few ‘doths’, ‘e’ens’ and ‘thous’ and verbs flopping at the ends of sentences as they speak with additional formality.

The temptation must surely strong to slip into modern vernacular for an easy laugh at the anachronism – and they do occasionally, succumb to it. But they ration this. for reasonable fear of undermining the whole premise, a restraint which also makes the device more effective when they do use it, such as when Simon, outcast from the royal court, asking the soldier charged with guarding him whether they might be ‘friends outside of work’.

With similar care for the bigger picture, they are devoted to making the story work, rather than seeking laughs from mistakes they either call out, or end up awkwardly committing to. In fact, there are very few fumbles, and their story hangs together enough to be a  passable first draft, at least.

What also helps is that Shakespeare wasn’t averse to preposterous plot twist if it suited him, so even some of the more outlandish notions seem vaguely credible in this world.

A robust plot comes at some cost to the comedy. however. Even if in the long term it’s rewarding to have a story worth sticking with, rather than being sacrificed for the sake of mucking about.

This particular outing involved plenty of that very Shakespearean disguises: a woman as a man, a commoner as a Lord, an old man as a slightly different old man (yes, that one did get a bit confused). But they managed to tie up all these plot strands relatively neatly

Founder member Rosy Fordham took the most broadly comic route, her gurning old crone speaking in riddles coming across like an extra from a Monty Python movie. While Charlie Sturgeon played it straightest, as the fragile king, but keeping the narrative on track surrounded by his mischievous cast mates.

Ignore, too, the fact that some of the selected Shakespearean cliches selected at the start were rather summarily shoehorned in. Instead, marvel at the fact that given the demanding task of making up a long-form story that holds together, while delivering some solid laughs, this did not end in tragedy.

Review date: 30 May 2019
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton Rialto Theatre