The Oxford Imps' weekly comedy improv shows have a strong following in Oxford. This run at the Moser Theatre took them out of their regular pub venue into a college theatre space. The first half of the evening saw improv games and a mini soap-opera; this review concerns the second half. Six of the Imps, plus Rob Hemmens at the piano, served up a 60-minute musical from three audience suggestions: a location (Police Station), a brand slogan ('Once you pop, you just can't stop'), a title (Smell! The Musical).

The opening number was created by Becca Gibson's 'Allo, allo, allo', swiftly backed by a chorus of pliéing policemen. The number worked musically and, as an ensemble production number, kicked the show off to a confident and catchy start. None of this was planned, it was pure, long-form improvisation, with the added constraint of having to sing lines which rhyme, whilst keeping an eye on any choreography that might well be hatching in the moment. And all the more satisfying, for the Imps showed no fear. Hell, they even harmonised and provided backing vocals.

The plot: two incompetent police constables in Lambeth determined to better themselves by finding some crime and sorting it out. Miss Wickedness Badness (Lucy Hamilton) and her minion Marcus (John Gethin) were bent on creating a foul smell with which to torment the locals. Peter Bazalgette (best-known for bringing Big Brother to the UK) (Joseph Morpurgo) decided to plant a head-cam-wearing mole (Becca Gibson) in the local police station, in order to bring another reality tv-show to the screen (The Bill, minus the former cast of Eastenders).

The show proved surprisingly satisfying to watch. The musicality was varied (with human beat-boxing from the pianist, power-ballads, G&S style counterpoint, a rap, and a tango spoof to rival Little Shop of Horrors' Mushnik and Son). Using long-form improvisation to create a story that an audience can care about is notoriously difficult, with the added requirement here of song and dance. But The Imps showed incredible skill, as well as a complicity on stage only achievable by a group of actors who trust, and can be generous with, each other. It was illuminating to see how the requirement of coming up with lyrical rhymes actually provided offers to the actors even during a solo number. As John Gethin found himself, in less than a bar's time, needing a rhyme for the word 'life', spontaneity had him singing 'will she ever be - my wife?' - all the funnier as he was singing of his abusive slave-driver Miss Wickedness Badness. And so came the plot development that gave his character a useful drive.

The action upped a notch when Joseph Morpurgo (as Bazalgette) and Becca Gibson (as the head-cammed WPC) conspired to help Miss Wickedness Badness create the biggest stink of all: by burning some Celebrity Love Island scripts, which segued into a barn-dance called 'Telly Hell'. To incorporate the audience's brand slogan, Christopher Schuller and Amy Cooke-Hodgson (the incompetent PCs) found themselves in the firing range. The former shared with the latter his passion for shooting in a song entitled 'Once you pop, you just can't stop'.

A criticism would be that the Imps occasionally allowed themselves a stage convention of a solitary clap from one of the cast to signal that a (perhaps struggling) scene had ended. An improvised musical isn't a theatre-sport, nor should it be a continuation of the Whose-Line-Is-It-Anyway-style games seen in the first half of the evening. The Imps need to trust their skill as improvisers, and raise the bar so that they're forced to bring every scene to a dramatic conclusion without the need to clap it away.

Smell! The Musical was terrifically received by the full house, and special mention should go to Amy Cooke-Hodgson for distilling a true comedy character from the caricature of the bungling police-woman. The drawback of the show being improvised, was that once born, it immediately became theatre history, never to be seen again - so the ending can be revealed. Having been busted by the Lambeth police, Bazalgette intervened to offer Miss Wickedness Badness the new series of Supernanny. With nappies needing changing, she'll cope with the smell.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Amy Cooke-Hodgson. John Gethin. Becca Gibson. Lucy Hamilton. Rob Hemmens. Joseph Morpurgo. Christopher Schuller.

Company Credits: Director - Rebecca Gibson. Lighting - Rob Lee. Sound - Ellie Doherty. Front of House - Caroline Daly. Front of House - Julia Hartley. Front of House - Lucy Morris. Front of House - Maddy Nicholls. Producer - Christopher Schuller. Company - The Oxford Imps.

END

(c) Nigel Pilkington 2008

reviewed Saturday 9 February 2008 / Wadham College, Oxford

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com