The Story Room

So, as the title and this introduction would suggest, The Story Room, a three man show which is sporadically performed at the Merlin Theater, is about stories, and most importantly how we choose to tell them.

The 80 minute performance is entirely improvised and feeds off suggestions from the audience; before the show audience members were asked to put one of their belongings in a bag and to write down words which fell under categories such as ‘something you do in the morning’ and ‘a word to describe last week’ and simply ‘a noun’.

As expected the contributions were eclectic and could have been fairly tricky for the trio: I mean, what does one do with the word ‘chain’ while wielding a guitar pedal and working on the theme, ‘Shakespearean Tragedy’? I thought that they had their work cut out.

But these guys didn’t disappoint and improvised quickly to produce comedy, drama and, sometimes, the indescribably strange. The audience was left to ponder the story behind the man who carried around an orange box which sucked out people’s memories. Then of course there was the story of the psychotic killer who displayed a penchant for keeping dismembered bodies in one of his many fridges, and sometimes in his freezer. Oh, and how could I forget the man who tried to commit suicide with an alarm clock on his head? I could go on but wouldn’t want to build up hopes for similar plot lines as obviously, each one of the Scallabouche brothers’ shows is different.

Occasionally the trio would drop out of character and play themselves, often directing each other, which was a welcome addition to the otherwise, fast-paced action. There’s no denying that these guys, one British and two American, have talent; their ability to turn a story plot on its head with a mere look was quite spectacular in itself; and they worked together almost effortlessly to avoid fairytale endings, other such clichés and so forth…

After years of enjoying Fringe improv shows and watching ‘Whose line is it anyway?’ on the TV, I was expecting the Scallabouche brothers to be playing everything for laughs. But although there were plenty of belly laugh moments, this didn’t seem to be their main objective; rather, they focused on story development, showcasing their techniques with unpredictable plots and intriguing characters.

Next time you hear The Story Room is scheduled for performance, be sure to book yourself a ticket. You’ll definitely have a few stories to tell afterwards…

Dates:
TBC

Tel.:
+36.20.358.7937