It's nice to get out of the manic hustle and bustle of the old town during the festival, so it's with welcome relief I went to the Theatre Workshop in quiet and leafy Stockbride to see Improv show 'Hard Hearted Hannah and Other Stories'.The challenge for theatre company Cartoon de Salvois, is to create a brand new one hour play, using only a title suggested from the audience. Once chosen, three songs are picked from a comprehensive playlist, that are all to feature in the made up story.We got off to slow start with only a handful of titles being offered, eventually settling on the uninspiring title 'The Talking Pipe' (only got ourselves to blame for that one). The songs picked were also a bit random: 'Rain on my Parade', 'You Sexy Thing' and 'Tears on my Pillow'.The three actors, Brian Logan, Neil Haigh and Alex Murdoch all take a few seconds to think (without conferring), before one of them takes the plunge. In our evening's brand new, never to be repeated story, we get a cross between The Archers and Scooby Doo, with a range of colourful characters including a pair of Northern gardeners, a senile old lady, a virgin maid and of course a talking pipe!Wholly improvised plays are difficult to pull off, but these three actors make it look easy. The real skill is to clearly set the scene and generate plot points, and they managed to easily paint a picture in my head by creating well defined characters, and developing the dialog exchanges. Part of the fun of watching the show is working out what direction the story is going to go, whilst trying to keep one step ahead of the actors.The live music part if the show was a real treat though, with the group playing acoustic guitar, mandolin, and the good ole washboard to create a delightfully soothing sound. Such was the quality, I was left wanting to hear a whole evenings worth of songs.This isn't 'Who's Line is it Anyway' and doesn't profess to be a laugh a minute, but there's something more admirable in seeing a feature length story develop, whilst still containing well crafted humour.I'm already thinking of better titles for the next time I encounter Cartoon de Salvo.
