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The Chicago Comedy Company -- Chicago
CIF Showcase - Athenaum Theater
Friday, April 5, 8 pm.
Reviewed by Jonathan Bender
The Chicago Comedy Company offers a surreal performance as an improv group pretending to be another improv group. A fictional theater company is formed within the first minutes of their show using audience suggestions for the personalities and quirks of the actors in the fictional company. This performance featured a nymphomaniac, a paranoid schizophrenic, a cheating boyfriend, an ex-girlfriend, and an ousted leader as the troupe members of The Pink Fox.
The performance began with the fictional theater company's warm-ups. The personalities that the actors embodied for the rest of the show were presented in the opening bit. A longform based on the suggestion "cheeseburgers" was the theoretical focus of the show, but it was the play within the play that had the audience rolling.
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The relationships of the characters were played out onstage in a manner as engrossing as any dysfunctional family on Jerry Springer. The cheating boyfriend and his cuckolded ex-girlfriend had a wonderful scene of double entendre about movies and drinks in which his philandering provided rich context. Negation flowed freely and appropriately as everyone ignored the ousted leader of the troupe. Every actor was able to fully realize his or her character over the course of the show.
At times it was difficult to keep track of whether to focus on the scene or the underlying tension between group members, but the group struck a good tempo, with the intensity and stakes rising throughout the performance. The ultimate breakdown of the troupe was comical and natural as the members became more frantic. Ultimately, this was a unique twist on longform that allowed the troupe to play with the rules of improv and show an admittedly exaggerated side of performers that the audience doesn't often get to see.