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Improvisational comedy doesn't usually fall under the purview of the Company of Strangers Theater's mission statement. Yet, last Saturday at Underground Collaborative actors involved in some of the group's productions and others from far away as Oshkosh put on an uproarious night of juried risk-taking as a fundraiser for future Strangers operations and productions.
Only one improv game was performed, but it allowed rich possibilities. Representatives of three teams were each to randomly pick one prop and one phrase that had to be uttered during a bit for which they were allowed ten minutes. Each group got forty minutes of prep time to whip those elements into an impromptu sketch.
Skits got progressively funnier as the event went on. First, "Naked Einsetin," a diminutive, thankfully anatomically incorrect, plush bean bag toy with a face resembling that of the famed scientist served as the basis for the first bit. Perhaps because some of the set-up for the band who played while the bits were being assembled, Racine's Well-Known Strangers, obstructed some of the improvisers' space, most of the action took place with the cast cowering in a back corner. The floppy figurine played the part of a ghost haunting the Titanic or a ship like it. From there, some narrative confusion ensued as to whether the phantom Einstein was doing all the haunting the players described. The confusion and ghostly terror did, however, inspire one distaff cast member to break out in sweet soprano-range song about the machinations of the demonic dwarf. The same actress forebodingly ended up reciting the assemblage's chosen phrase as the piece concluded near the nick of time.
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A decanter, not of alcohol but dubiously effective quack medicine, played the central role of the next piece. A co-ed gang of street thugs looking to unload their curious curative spy an elderly lady and her caretaker as their first potential victims. The laughs came in full force as the rip-off artists attempted to demonstrate the concoction to the objects of their fleecing scheme. An especially effective episode of the bit occurred when one of the swindlers demonstrated how the elixir could cure foot odor by drinking some from his shoe. Still not all the elements came together cohesively as they did in the last of the night's selections.
Herein, an apparently married couple with their own aspirations of wealth want to sell a certain fruit for an arguably usurious upcharge. A husband not so bright as he thinks he is, a beleagured wife and their dim son got plenty of comedic mileage from the screwball family dynamic, continued mispronunciation of "avocados" and the prospect of the family netting $500 for their efforts. Their prop, a sombrero, came into play toward the end of the action as the boy was fitted with it and sent outside to shill the guacamole fodder. Had the 10-minute mark not come just as interaction with someone who knew how to say the name of the product at hand, they could have produced even more hearty, sustained guffaws from the audience than they already had.
One of the night's three judges, local actor Gordon Wisniewski, expressed concern as to the direction of ethnic stereotyping the use of the sombrero could have entailed in the first-place vignette. The character sporting the hat was of such low intellectual wattage that it would have likely played out as a bumbling of any sort of racial derision, and the actor seemed to have had a firm enough handle on his role to have avoided undue offense.
Company of Strangers co-founder Sosnoski made for a gracious hostess (her husband, James, played the brains behind the askew avocado scheme in the winning playlet). The improv' she facilitated kept within the clean confines of the group's Christian philosophical undergirding. Should they program improv regularly to complement full Strangers productions, such as this July's The Tell-Tale Heart and the Mind of Poe, it could become a destination for families seeking an inexpensive evening of profanity-free chuckles.
Well-Known Strangers not only have a name that dove-tailed well with the headliners', but the acoustic adaptations of their usually electrified set list kept the crowd engaged. Their inclusion of cello in their lineup may make them unique among area alt/indie rockers. Lead singer Betsy Ade sold "You Oughta Know" with an authority rivaling Alanis Morissette's original. And their own numbers such as human trafficking protest "Voices" would fit well on in the playlist of modern stations seeking more to supplement the softer sounds already proffered by acts including AWOLNation and Moon Taxi.
