On the last day of the winter term, laughter could be heard coming from our lecture room as the Pater Society played host to the improvised comedy group Whiskey For Breakfast. The appeal of ‘improv’ lies in its unpredictability, and the atmosphere was one of excitement as neither audience nor performers knew what would happen next.
The show took the form of a number of different games, each involving suggestions from the audience which were used to shape the scenes being performed. One game began with four players improvising a scene taking place in the nearby Exam Schools and involving an angry invigilator and a very strange method of cheating. One by one, the players were eliminated, with the remaining performers being made to recreate the scene and somehow cover all of the roles between them. This inevitably descended into chaos, with the final remaining player being forced to run from one side of the room to another in an attempt to play all four roles at once.
Other highlights came as four of the players performed scenes apparently revealing behind-the-scenes drama within college (“Beth has gone power mad!”), and three performers worked together to become the “three-headed expert”, taking turns to say a word on their specialist subject (in this case, pizza).
The event was a fantastic high on which to end the term, and I’m sure that several audience members will have walked away inspired to try out improvised comedy for themselves.
By Eve Lytollis (Second Year French Student)
The Pater Society is a Brasenose-based arts society which hosts events once a term. If you have any questions or suggestions for events you’d like to see, please visit our Facebook page.