Shakespeare Unscripted

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman

RECOMMENDED:

Come late to a performance of Impro Theatre’s Shakespeare Unscripted and you’ll likely be greeted with an ironic round of applause from the audience members who have been waiting for you to arrive. Latecomers react with good-natured grins, red-faced embarrassment or something in between. It helps set the stage for the amiable satiric entertainment that follows.

Each night the company improvises a comedy in mock-Shakespearean style, plucking two ideas from  the audience to integrate into the scenario. In fact, the suggestions – the night I attended they were an aardvark and a beheading — have only minor bearing on the evolving plot.

With love and politics as its center, this particular plot included a Duke (Mike Rock), his daughter (Kari Coleman), an unctuous friar (Brian Lohmann), and various conspirators and courters of the lady. Tall, thin droll-faced performer Paul Rogan played an evasive fugitive, riffing on the film The Thin Man by cuddling a longhaired white object to his breast. The glibbest and funniest among the ensemble was co-director Lohmann as the officious and meddlesome cleric who turned out to be the chief villain as well.

Co-director Dan O’Connor proffered a very funny portrayal of a fervid foreign suitor, frantic to produce the poetic verses he believed necessary to win his desired lady’s devotion. Both performers were most adept at burlesquing Shakespearean language.

Since no two shows are the same it’s impossible to gauge the humor quotient of future performances. What you can depend on is the character-driven nature of this troupe’s comedy, which for me pretty much assures an amusing evening.

Impro Theatre, Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through May 4. (626) 356-7529, www.pasadenaplayhouse.org