June 01--For 10 years, the Improvised Shakespeare Company has been blazing an Elizabethan trail through the city's improv scene, where comedy shows rarely see such longevity. The reason it hast did last so long: 'Tis v'ry, v'ry good.
To rhyme is sublime, but a talent more surprising if done while improvising. That means the cast must not only have a working knowledge of Shakespearean tropes and verbiage, but also deliver all of it without pause. And have the result make sense. The play's the thing, to quote, uh, somebody.
It requires performers who can think very quickly on their feet, and creator and director Blaine Swen (who has since moved to Los Angeles but keeps close tabs on the show and comes back to perform once a month or so) has filled the company's ranks with young men who are deeply smart about the many ways to be deeply silly within Shakespearean confines.
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This being the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death (hence the many Shakespeare 400 events scheduled this summer), it's not a bad time to visit (or in my case, revisit) one of the city's more consistently funny improv shows, one that has launched the career of at least one actor you may be familiar with, "Silicon Valley" star Thomas Middleditch, who was tops when I saw him in 2006 and still tours with the show every so often.
An audience suggestion provides the play's title ("Tiny Tots on the night I attended at iO Theater), and then the cast is off to the races. A fully improvised two-act play unfurls, and while it might seem as if the story bears little resemblance to title proffered, hang in there. The actors will find a way to get there.
Such as: The story of two warring nations, England and France, coming to a peace treaty that hinges on a matrimonial match between a high-ranking French official and the king of England's daughter, the latter of whom has already promised her love to a valorous British soldier. Whoops! The Frenchman (played by Kevin Sciretta, who is extremely good) has no patience for complications: "Such friendships are to be put aside, for you have promised me your daughter as a bride."
Meanwhile, three sisters had their eye on the British soldier (Brendan Dowling) for themselves but, having been thwarted, are transformed into the witches from "Macbeth." They brew up a potion that will turn back the hands of time and render the poor guy a toddler. Only true love breaks the spell, after which he exclaims: "Here now, when everything seems topsy-tipsy, I seem to be clinging to a cup that is a sippy."
The cast of five changes from night to night (about 15 actors rotate in and out), and everyone gets his moment (Asher Perlman is another standout and comes armed with a dry sense of humor), but Sciretta is the real stuff here and has the confidence to break from the lockstep of rhyming syntax: "The sight of your stupid English face and your dumb British clothes is enough to set a rage in my purely French heart."
Shakespearean dialogue rhymes, yes, but not all the time. And Sciretta understands how to create multidimensional characters in a split -second, this time with a Fronch accent that was obnoxiously, wonderfully on point.
nmetz@tribpub.com
The Improvised Shakespeare Company -- 3.5 STARS
When: Open run
Where: iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St.
Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Tickets: $16 at 312 929-2401 and www.ioimprov.com/chicago
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