Comedy improv show by ShiZi Improv Theatre and Teater Prego, with the improvised play 'Ingmar - Improvised Bergman', at the MAC Birmingham.
ShiZi Improv Theatre and Ingmar are playing at MAC Birmingham on Friday 6 November, two improv acts sharing one bill. It's a double-header of comedy improv, so you'll get two different approaches to the same thing in one night.
ShiZi Improv Theatre are the first half. If you've never seen them, they're a troupe that works from the ground up: no script, no rehearsal, and nothing decided before they step on stage. The whole thing is built on the spot, so every show is a one-off. It's that kind of improv where the scene changes as fast as the ideas do, and the comedy comes from watching them figure it out in front of you.
Then there's Ingmar, who bring something a bit more specific to the table. Their show is called Ingmar - Improvised Bergman, and the name tells you exactly what they're after. It's a nod to Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish director known for his stark, psychological dramas and those long, intense close-ups of people talking through their crises. The joke is in the contrast: they're taking that heavy, high-art style and running it through the improv filter, so you get the look and feel of a Bergman film made up on the fly. It's a different kind of comedy from ShiZi's, more about the style they're playing with than just the scenes they build.
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Between the two, you get a good spread of how improv can work — one troupe doing the broad, fast-paced stuff and another playing with a specific cinematic reference. Both are at MAC Birmingham on Friday 6 November, so it's a full night of it. If you're into improv, it's a decent way to see two different takes in one sitting.
