Echoes

MadLab is putting on Echoes on Wednesday, November 4, at their space at 227 North 3rd Street. It's an improvisational piece that works like a living experiment: three pairs of improvisers all start from the exact same point, and from there, each duo takes off on its own journey. They're all on stage at once, so you get to watch three different scenes unfold simultaneously, each pair discovering its own relationship and following it wherever it leads.

That's the core of it—the same starting line, three different paths. Because all three scenes stay on stage, they drift in and out of focus like echoes, one pair taking the lead while the others recede, then shifting back again. There's no predetermined story and no planned destination, so you're watching the scenes build themselves in real time. It's billed as three different journeys from a single starting point, and since it's all improvised, it'll never be the same twice.

It's one of those shows where the whole point is the process rather than a finished script. You're seeing the improvisers work through the scene as it happens, and because they're all sharing the stage, you can compare how three different pairs handle the same prompt. One might lean into comedy, another into something more quiet or tense, and a third somewhere else entirely, all playing out side by side.

Echoes runs at 7 PM on Wednesday, November 4, at MadLab, 227 North 3rd Street, Columbus, OH 43215. It's a pay-what-you-will show at the door, so you just give what you can when you arrive.