Improv Review ...Because Improv is Art, Dammit

Review by Jeff Catanese

The Chicago Improv Festival was pretty well laid out so that everyone would see what they wanted to see. If one venue was sold-out, another would provide a fine evening's entertainment, and if you had time on your hands one only had to open the festival's program to see what going on. Because of this organized approach there was very little in the festival that could be considered a hidden gem. Then there was The Free Associates' Charlie and the Fiction Factory." Grossly under-attended while most of the improv
pilgrims were attending workshops, these four adults and an eleven year-old
girl performed a solid straight narrative with a risky style format, and boasted one of the best shows of the festival.

Taking their cues from the Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The Witches, the cast treats the subject of their style with the utmost respect and pulls off some of the best style work I've ever seen. Dahl is an author whose works are the bane of many parents and teachers for his cruelty towards children by moronic adults and parental figures, and his calling a spade a spade, letting bad kids be bad kids and gladly giving them their comeuppance. I was glad to see that the cast did not shy away from any of this, much to the delight of the adults and children in the audience.

Charlie was the set central figure and was played by an eleven year-old girl who proved that with a devotion to the basic tenets of improvisation, high comedy is child's play. Second into the show the narrator killed off Charlie's parents and sent her to live with a strange lion tamer. Charlie was taught in school by Mr. Crunchnumbers, taunted by her peers, put into the Wholy-Rolly-Moley [sic], and forced to eat a grutitious bee [also sic].
All of these elements were combined in a straight narrative style that was, not only relevant to the style, but showed off some great storytelling by the more than able cast.

The show itself smartly used the technical elements of sound, lights and an arsenal of props and costumes that seemed never ending. If there was any detriment to the show it was that the time between the scenes dragged a bit, and the cast seemed to diverge on ideas once they approached the end. But their demeanor and fun use of irony more than made up for it.

With genuine scares, edgy feel and honest use of British idiom some might say this show slightly exceeds the grasp of smaller kids, but that is underestimating smaller kids. The smiles on their faces during the engaging workshop that followed the performance seemed to tell all. Bravo.

Click here to read our interview with Susan Gaspar.

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