Improv Review ...Because Improv is Art, Dammit

Each time the members of Yellow Man Group make their way across the Pacific Ocean to the United States, otherwise jaded improv crowds quickly hold them high as one of the most fun and popular groups wherever they play. Eschewing their limited English, they perform with a bravado that most people would admittedly be afraid to show.

Perhaps it’s their heightened sense of physical performance. Perhaps it’s their self-deprecating opening (dressed in yellow they take snapshots of each other and the audience). Perhaps it’s their simple love of the audience, and how well it comes across, that makes them so endearing. This reviewer believes it is all that and their shameless love of improvising that earns them the kudos they receive.

Rarely does one see the tenets of improvisational theater adhered to with such gusto, and used to create unconscious parody that leaves the audience crying with laughter. The creation of objects and ideas in the games they play are so sharp as to make one think, even as one is doubled over with mirth.

Although their “Freeze Tag” could have been extended to let the scenes be explored further (toward the end of the game they appeared to be just saying “freeze” rhythmically, rather than concentrating on what was happening), games like “Sing About It,” and “Styles Replay” came off more as mini-plays than games. Starting “Opening Line/Closing Line” with the audience-suggested “To be or not to be,” Yuri Kinugawa created a strangely post-modern Shakespeare scene by following the line with, “That is your problem.

The group makes decisions quickly and seeks games to play in all verbal and physical cues. Gender bending, and becoming inanimate objects for them is not a thought process, but an obligation. Truly they seem to place the scene above their own interests. In “Sing About It,” Naomi Ikegami displayed a beautiful and unexpected voice (in songs reminiscent of Bjork), and Masahiko Iino displayed a physical presence nonpareil.

All theater festivals proclaim to bring a worldwide community together and it’s amazing to see that being relatively isolated from the improv community in Tokyo has not hurt Yellow Man Group, but, in fact, has probably fed them enormously. Also, as a styles fan, it’s wonderful to see Kabuki done well.

Click here to read our interview with Yuri Kinugawa.

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