the big freeze hits the uk
February 10th, 2008 • improvisation
ImprovEverywhere’s latest project - bringing Grand Central Station to a halt, and applause from confused if delighted bystanders - has started to spawn UK copies. There’s a Great Trafalgar Square Freeze planned for London on 16th February, and an Edinburgh Waverley Big Freeze on 24th, both outside of the group’s global network.
ImprovEverywhere’s work doesn’t really fit the mould of many other improv companies. The scenes they stage - to generate public chaos and delight - are heavily structured and timed. The appearance of a spontaneous mass event (the hallmark of ImprovEverywhere’s work) requires careful planning.
It’s slightly more interesting to think of ImprovEverywhere’s work in the tradition of Augusto Boal’s invisible theatre - most infamously staged on the Paris Metro - though without the deliberate attempt to provoke and involve an unsuspecting audience. ImprovEverywhere’s pantless subway riding experiment in ten cities in January of this year would seem to look like spectacle rather than direclty political theatre (though, again, you could argue for a link to public happenings and the early work of The People Show).
It’s also true, though, that some of ImprovEverywhere’s “missions” do seem to invite a specific social comment.
It’s hard to consider the spectacle of 111 men of every shape and size, shopping shirtless in Abercrombie and Fitch (a store known for muscular half-naked male model greeters and a decoration scheme best described as “homoeroticism for straight men”) without thinking some comment is being made about the male form.
Still, it’s going to be interesting to see how the general public in the UK responds to this kind of mass spectacle (particularly with police authorities whose approach to public gatherings is less than generous towards the spontaneous). I’ll be in Waverley on 24th - I’ll bring back some video then. See you there?
