Two chairs. A door. An otherwise empty stage. A group of actors. No script. Nothing beats the thrill of sitting down to a piece of improvisational theatre. Right?
“A Beginning, A Muddle and an End” asks its audience to write names, places, scenarios or phrases on pieces of paper before the show begins. On entering the auditorium, the spectators must place their scribblings in pots placed on the periphery of the stage. Throughout the thoroughly improvised piece, the nine actors use these cues to prompt and guide their performance.
The success or failure of improvised theatre heavily depends on the observer's perception of its claims of spontaneity. Unfortunately, I didn't quite believe that “A Beginning, A Muddle and an End” lives up to its claims of being based around “no script, no plot, [and] no safety nets”. Although the use of the audience-provided prompt words was highlighted as a key feature, they featured minimally and seemingly made little impact on the proceedings.
Moreover, the entire production seemed incredibly sleek when considering its supposed unplanned nature. When a scene ended, the players instantly knew who was going to go on stage next and how to arrange the two chairs. That the remaining cast are visible and inaudible at the sides of the stage whilst other action takes place indicates that this was not hurriedly drawn up as the piece went along. Whilst this may well have been arranged beforehand, it certainly draws away from the premise of a totally unpredictable and unprepared narrative.
This apparent contrivance within a purportedly uncontrived paradigm inevitably leads to the ‘slippery slope theory’. If x has actually been arranged beforehand, what’s to say that y and z live up to these spontaneous claims?
Disregarding the set-up, the performance itself was fairly pleasing. The piece I witnessed was irreverently set around a dying woman, a tempestuous young couple, twin drug-pushing bakers and a group who turn Adolf Hitler’s home into a tourist attraction. Whilst the tonal shifts between tragedy and comedy were often awkward, the piece was certainly more humorous than it was sentimental. However, these jokes wore thin over the exorbitant hour-long running time and the piece is never as funny as it thinks it is.
Whilst fairly innocent throughout, some of the humour became crass and uncomfortable. A notable scene in which a dying woman asked to be “cremated in Hitler’s oven” was particularly bizarre, but perhaps faux pa’s are to be expected in such extemporaneous circumstances. Unfortunately, the sheer number of actors and interconnected storylines ensured that the ending resulted in haphazard histrionics.
Through both content and form, “A Beginning, A Muddle and an End” never quite lives up to its unpredictable premise. Whilst it would clearly work better on a diminished scale, those who won’t take its set-up will find a passable hour of fun.
