Tales of the Unanticipated

ADC Theatre, 11:00 p.m., 3 November 2009

The best stories cut close to the bone. The triumphant hero never emerges entirely unscathed; ordinary people find their lives changing for good but not necessarily for the better; happy endings happen but then life always goes on. Tales of the Unanticipated is a series of short stories in which the unusual, macabre, and even grotesque are never far below the surface.

The show is based around “directed improv”, in which actors outside the scene onstage accept suggestions from the audience, using them to direct those in the scene from the sidelines. This style of theatre is enthralling because of its transparency: the audience are co-conspirators in the conception of the narrative, which is drawn together in plain view. And yet the story still comes out of nowhere, and leads to the darker corners of our collective imagination.