Event Recap: ShPTF II – Chinese Improv Theatre Exploded with Splitting Punchlines

Last Saturday night, at Tiger Cafe, ShanghaiPRIDE Theatre Festival saw its second acting event, “Chinese Improvisational Theatre”. The show brought together two of Shanghai’s largest Chinese improv teams in support of ShanghaiPRIDE – The Sesame Addicts (Zmack) and The Improvisers (Jixingzhe Lianmeng)!

The show began, after Darick Qin, an organizer of ShanghaiPRIDE made a brief speech. First on stage was The Improvisers (Jixingzhe Lianmeng), opening their performance with a warm-up introduction to the improvisational theatre. Three people were chosen from the audience and asked to say a same line in three different bizarre situations. The Improvisers programmed their impromptu in an incredibly systematic way, applying several methodologies to unfold the impossible yet logical plots filled with witty dialogues. They were masters in drawing inspirations from the viewers who all became playwrights and actors, making everybody in the room part of the show. As the audience poured vast funny materials into the story lines, there was truly never a dull moment.

The following team, The Sesame Addicts (Zmack), also offered colorful and fiercely hilarious performances. They are such a diverse group of performers, each one carrying a unique persona, representing multifold collisional cultures via their make-ups, accents, and behaviors. They were so free to express inner feelings and emotions not just by singing, dancing and poetry, but also in physical comedy. They even turned the stage into a living room where they casually talked about trendy issues, creating performing art out of everyday life. Finally, the funeral scene gave full play to the virtuosity of black humor, leading the show to a perfect end.

Throughout the whole night, the spectators were constantly surprised and burst into laughter at the talents both on- and off-stage. Everyone is an artist, having a special story to tell. That’s the magic of improvisation.

ShPTF: Chinese Improvisational Theatre