Storybox @ The Piven -- Show Review

[jmicawber78]

When was the last time you saw an improvised show where laughter--the funny--wasn't the objective for the actors, or even the primary measure of their show's success? Hmm...

Storybox, a 90 minute improvised one act (with a run thru Feb. 3rd at The Piven), is different. In rare shows by the best of teams, an audience may leave the theater profoundly, even emotionally, affected; Storybox, by design, is a show likely to elicit such reactions on a more regular basis.

And the funny? Storybox has that, too, but the laughter comes from a different place entirely. When I saw Storybox last night (1/25), the biggest laugh of the night came near the end of the show, on an innocent callback to the great thing about swimming in heaven (when you get out of the water, you're instantly dry).

After all the audience had witnessed to that point, the laughter was more akin to cathartic release, and any regular improv show would have pulled the lights then and there. The story, though, wasn't over, and the lights remained to see Karen, an elderly woman from heaven (with soft skin and a love for jokes), poignantly reunited with her husband and daughter.

An ending like that would have been precluded by less committed actors--it takes discipline to refrain from selling out a scene or moment for the sake of a laugh--but the ensemble here worked together to maintain the integrity of their piece.

Besides deftly weaving an intricate and often touching tale, the cast also executed fairly seamless transitions, all dramatically punctuated with minimalist props (sticks and cloth). What will strike you is the great variety of theater forms represented. They open with some elementary Spolin, they narrate throughout with variations on Johnstone; at one time they backed up the action with some instrumental ambience, quickly blending into two distinct, and aurally pleasing, rhythms of sound; later, they formed a chilling tableau around the main character, Karen, as she recounted the agony of a dark time in her past.

The story itself, if it approaches the one I chanced to catch, is likely to be the damnedest thing you'll see for a while. On 1/25, it was comparable to the movie What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, or the lucid strangeness of The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles--although I don't doubt that the cast could play a more mundane story just as ably.

At its best, the story and the staging/lighting/music will coalesce to spine-tingling effect, resulting in an experience that plays on a subconscious level. This is seldomly explored territory for improvisation in Chicago, and it's worth checking out before the run ends next week.

Storybox @ The Piven Theater, Directed by Jonathan Pitts, Thur-Sun ending Feb. 3, $10. (Also, basically right next to the Noyes Purple Line Stop).