For those kicking themselves for watching too much TV and not getting out enough, an opportunity is about to present itself to leave the house and still see some high-calibre comedy. From now until April, Victoria’s Sin City Improv will be putting on a live serial comedy show every Tuesday night.
“Improv is making stuff up on the spot, and with improvising, half the fun is bouncing off each other and not knowing what’s coming next, and having the audience get to observe these magical moments that happen only briefly in front of their eyes and then they disappear,” explains the show’s organizer, Kirsten Van Ritzen.
Sin City provides a unique platform for theatre: it’s neither a play nor an improvised skit, but rather a best-of-both-world combination.
“It’s a completely different format. Most improv is a three-minute scene where a director comes out and asks for a suggestion, and they do a game or a scene based on that suggestion. We’re long-form storytelling. So we choose a setting, we play the same characters from week to week, and the story begins, and it continues every week for a number of shows,” says Van Ritzen.
The show is in its fourth year in Victoria and this year’s theme is Kingdom of Thrones. The show is set in the Middle Ages and the characters populate a medieval castle. The show’s past seasons have been quite successful bringing in patrons of all ages, according to Van Ritzen.
“We always have an interesting mixture in our audience. They range from students up to seniors, and there’s always a really hardcore group that loves to come each week and they make friends with each other and it becomes a social evening out,” she says. “There’s always a couple of tables of people coming for their first week out. It’s not as formal as going to a play; there’s a bar, so it’s a nice social evening.”
Sin City
Tuesdays, 8 pm
Victoria Event Centre, $12-$15
sincityimprov.com