Big Risks Reap Big Rewards: Talking People’s The Interview
Nerves are normal when heading into an interview. Also when watching two hours of improv.
Directed by Richard Vincent and produced by Elina Saleh Franck, Talking People’s show at the Bush Theatre meant exposure to both of these things, as well as audience participation (ah!) in an intimate space.
Here’s the premise: three candidates, one PA position. In the first act, each actor is provided with a past, a motive and a conclusion for their story. The director and the audience can ask them questions, however outlandish or rude. As Vincent pointed out in his introduction, this is the stuff that makes us human, and so shouldn’t be censored. Question by question, the characters are crafted before our eyes.
Vincent also pointed out that giving specific trigger warnings is impossible for an improvised performance. Our first taste of this came from Lucas Pidgeon, playing the big-shot, quarter-zip wearing, Canary Wharf-based employer. Between the director firing questions and the audience digging into his past, Pidgeon initially tiptoed towards untrustworthiness before subtly darkening into a violent man in a position of power. When he used the word ‘forced’ to describe his physical relationship with his last PA, he not only brought a palpable tension to the room but set the tone for the second act.
This is when the interviews took place. In the first act, the director handed each actor a slip revealing whether, if hired, they would ultimately kill, marry or sue the boss. Only they knew their assigned outcome. The candidates each took turns sitting in front of their prospective employer and answering his questions.
Meet the candidates: Megan Walsh as revenge-seeking seductress Sasha, Lola Spiteri as battleaxe Kat and Anna Griffith as few-cards-short-of-a-deck Heather. Each gave their all, thinking quickly on the spot in what can only be described as an impressive display of pressurised creativity. In fact, they turned the intimate space — in which no one knows what’s coming next — into a canister of potential ready to explode.
In their aim to ‘spotlight the exceptional talent’ of actors while ‘championing the transformative power of improvisation’, Talking People have succeeded. The Interview marked this cast’s debut with the production, selected from the Immersion Improv training programme. Their innovative, interactive storytelling is something to behold.
Improv is a risky business that takes an immense amount of courage to undertake. What it cannot do without, however, is sheer talent. The success of this performance proves that this cast has it in abundance.
By taking big risks, they reaped big rewards, and I predict they will continue to do so.
Mali Delargy
Photos via Xanthus Peters and Mali Delargy
