03 Aug 2023
Deborah Heath is blown away by a modern take on Chaucer’s classic roadtrip stories.
Every now and then a show comes along that takes my breath away. ‘The Canterbury Improv Tales’, brought to us by Make it Beautiful Theatre Company, sent shock waves through the Roman Theatre by mixing comedy, live music and improvisation with a classic text.
The opening lulled us into a false sense of security as Chaucer spoke in “accessible middle English” to the Wife of Bath but soon their unique twist on ‘The Canterbury Tales’ was established: The Wife of Bath, who had been entrusted with the rest of the tales, had lost the manuscript, meaning that Chaucer had to improvise some brand-new tales for and inspired by tonight’s crowd.
They were soon joined on stage by a Friar, Knight and a Squire who quickly asked the audience for help.
This was a wise move which kept everyone engaged and I was lucky enough that they picked on two of my friends and my own son. However, the love story between two unknown audience members was absolutely gorgeous and I will unpack this later.
A trio of musicians on violin, cello and recorder provided a period style live soundtrack which responded to every ebb and flow of the spontaneous stories ranging from peril, action, dance and romance. Goodness knows how they rehearsed for such a challenge but I was very impressed.
Let’s start with the Knight’s Tale, the original of which explores themes such as love, competition and friendship and although this story was different, the themes remained through some expert quick story construction and honed group work.
Our Knight (Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson) asked audience member Richard and his wife what their jobs were (apparently a vegetable seller and fisherwoman) and also discovered that Richard’s bravest moment was rescuing a drowning man. The cast then improvised a hilarious tale about a swimming competition in which our hero Richard
(played with energy by Molly-Rose Treves) won the hand of his wife Charlotte. The way they set each other up was fascinating, throwing in cheeky challenges such as “she was Scottish”.
In the Friar’s tale, audience member Lex, a musician, became the focus of the story. Chaucer’s Friar told a tale of corruption, the devil and the criminal underworld. In this version our Friar (Will Stevens) explored how Lex had to choose between lifelong pain relief drugs or being able to play his harp. It was a hilarious adventure and an absolute joy watching these improv masters at work. It was an added bonus in this story particularly to pick up on the dynamics and in jokes between the cast.
There was obviously an underlying dread of performing in rhyme and song because whenever one of them landed their colleague in it e.g. “and she spoke only in rhyme…” there were chuckles and rolled eyes. However, they did a smashing job for something I believe they may have found harder than the general story telling.
The second act had a subtly different vibe as the cast invented their own Squire’s tale. The original was actually unfinished as he was interrupted by another character but promised to be a long rambling romantic tale. While this version wasn’t rambling, it was certainly the longest improvisation of the night and probably the most successful.
Our Squire (Pip Franks), asked for two audience members who were in love and we were delighted to meet Martha and Steven who had been married for 31 years, having first met at university studying Chaucer himself! It was a heart-warming tale about two lovers kept apart by strict single sex colleges.
I really liked the comic portrayal of gritty friend Susan played by Gabriel Fogarty Graveson and Felix Grainger’s Troll who brought a welcome uplift. Another highlight of this tale was the dancing, also improvised, which had a surprisingly polished appearance due to the skills of the two actors and the trio of musicians, all of whom anticipated each other’s moves expertly.
Last week at the Comedy Garden I admired the acts for performing in a vulnerable situation – alone and exposed to crowd banter. For similar reasons I stand in awe of the actors and musicians in this show as, although they knew the themes they would deal with and may have had some rehearsed structures, the twists and turns of these stories were new and it was so exciting to witness it all unfold.
I was also impressed with the tribute they played to Chaucer by maintaining his themes, structure, characters and most importantly his passion for storytelling. The key to their success was the tightness of their company – here was a quintet of skilled actors who could have just as easily performed Shakespeare as appeared on ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’.
It was inspiring and impressive to watch them feed each other situations, then respond and surprise each other. They were obviously having fun and it was infectious.
This dynamic team of five, not to mention their fabulous musicians delivered the funniest and cleverest show I have seen this year. I can’t wait to see the next thing they come up with!
