IMPRO 2013: Shortcuts (en)

zur deutschen Version Author: Sören Boller
Translation: Oliver Grytzmann

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Randy Dixon, Photo: Sören Boller

BERLIN – An ensemble consisting of Thomas Chemnitz (Die Gorillas, Berlin), Randy Dixon (Unexpected Productions, Seattle), Maja Dekleva (Kollektiv Narobov, Ljubljana), Davide Arcuri (Teatribu, Mailand), Henriette Konschill (Drama Light, Mannheim), as well as of Felix Raffel (Die Gorillas) on the piano, performed at the Kreuzberger Ratibor-Theater on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013. The first half of the show featured five short scenes from which the audience did choose two for detailed stories; after the break the actors engaged in encounters that revealed snapshots of their characters’ lives. The show was supposed to impress with its international charm, cross-cultural wit and lots of music, according to the advertisement.

Short Cuts – Extended Boredom?

In the beginning, the audience picked “Where Is My Beer?” and “Arctic Ice” out of the five very short introductory scenes; the former addressed a pending husband and wife quarrel, whereas the latter dealt with a couple of arctic explorers searching for human remains there. “Arctic Ice” played out as a typical adventure story with lots of hardly perceptible action and the unanswered question as to what the plot was actually about. On the other hand Randy Dixon and Maja Dekleva did convincingly portrait a couple in disarray; the audience was pleasantly entertained by the many-faceted characters and the ample information about them. Both scenes suffered from the language barrier however, and Henriette Konschill struggled the most to recognize even broad hints. Thus, the performances neither truly progressed nor excelled with humor.

Encounters

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Maja und Randy, Photo: Sören Boller

After the break, each actor played a character based on a sole suggestion by the audience; for the remainder of the show the performers kept their alter ego and involved it in several chance acquaintances. Again it was Randy Dixon who created a worth seeing protagonist, by playing a man taken in by a specific author. The subsequent storylines mingled in part and sometimes dispersed again successfully. Nonetheless no arousing scenes were constructed, notwithstanding the apparent effort of the actors to create unique experiences. Henriette Konschill’s performance fell flat the most, probably due to another lack of understanding and definitely because she actually missed to include her suggestion to a right to procreate. If anything her protagonist merely displayed a strong desire for children that was satisfied in the end – thereby betraying the expectations of the audience. The people in attendance consisted of apprentices for the most part, who rather anticipated a comedy show; they didn’t express their desire explicitly and further unsettled the actors by a lack of feedback.

It wasn’t meant to be on this evening, despite fabulous actors and an attractive format. Thus, the evening lagged behind the quality of the festival.