| Desperate Improvisations
Desperate Improvisations challenges both actors and the audience by its unusual approach to acting. It raises quite uncomfortable questions regarding the creative process and how our fantasies can rule and dominate our lives, sometimes in a totally unpredictable way. Who is in charge—the writer, or his characters? As we discover through this play, quite often it's the latter.
With the sponsorship of the Royal Dutch Embassy, I took this play to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This was preceded by a short run at the Lion & Unicorn pub theatre in London.
| What the press said... |
A writer (Tim Metcalfe-Wood) invites three friends, Greg, a young American sci-fi writer (Kevin Sherwani), Maurice, a fantasy writer (Charles Delaney) and Vera, an excentric artiste (brilliantly portrayed by Frederic D'Amore). Together they will come up with the idea for a new play, but soon, the question arises: who is in charge, the writer or the characters? When the four friends invite two actors, Maureen (Natalie Louka) and Emanuel (Shaun Nethercott) into their creative process, the situation appears to get out of hand and devolps on its own in a totally unpredictable way. This bitter-sweet story, written by the Dutch playwright Jan Hendrik Verstraten and directed by the talented Georgian director Dimitry Devdariani is a must see! A beautiful, dream-like story, full of surprises and sudden turns, that never loses its relation to reality however and a brilliant cast - don't miss it!
Scene 4 Magazine |
Cast: Tim Metcalfe-Wood, Frederic D'amore, Kevin Sherwani, Charles Delaney, Natalie Louka and Shaun Nethercott
Written by Jan Hendrik Verstraten
Directed by Dimitry Devdariani
Performed at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, London between 2nd and 6th August 2006,
and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival between 13th and 28th August 2006 |
