Event type: Comedy

4.30pm
 

Loo-Prov! 
Ever wondered what happens on the other side of the doors to the ladies toilets? The women from Loo-Prov! bring the tears, pep talks and confessions of the bathrooms to the stage with their completely improvised show.
This all female, London based team is a favourite with local audiences! Finalists in the Free Association’s 2024 Cage Match and performers at the 2024 Das Improv festival in Berlin, their show is a touching, funny and sometimes illuminating experience!

 

RAWD

Get Ready for a show filled with joy, chaos, and unscripted brilliance!

RAWD have worked with festival co-director Jen putting together a show that promises big laughs, bold creativity and a whole lot of heart.

Expect the unexpected as our talented performers take the stage, creating totally unpredictable scenes— all inspired by your suggestions! From off-the-cuff comedy to side-splitting storytelling, this is making stuff up like you’ve never seen it before.

7pm
 

Mirth meets murder in the world’s daftest whodunnit. Following more than a decade of five-star, sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Leicester Square Theatre and more, the award-winning festival favourite ‘CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation’ comes to Liverpool with the rip-roaring crime comedy made up entirely on the spot. Grab your detective hats and prepare to laugh as you create your very own crime, grill suspects in a line up and, ultimately, decide who’s off to the clanger.

A fully improvised, witty and absurd murder mystery. No one knows who the killer is, not even the cast!

 
WINNER ‘Best Musical/Improv Show’ Leicester Comedy Festival 2023
WINNER ‘The Comedy Award’ Colchester Fringe 2024
“Quick thinking & fast paced. A spectacular must see.” ★★★★★ – Bunbury Magazine
“They have improvisation down to a fine art” ★★★★★ – Wee Review
“Unique and riveting… downright hilarious.” ★★★★1/2 – Luxembourg Chronicle

8.45 – 9.25pm
 

What happens when you take Norway’s tallest improviser and England’s shortest improviser* and give them a stage to play with? The answer is “The Orange of Truth”, a live comedy show like no other.

 

This unique performance invites audiences to experience the only comedy show in the universe that comes with its own orange!* “The Orange of Truth” promises a one-of-a-kind journey through the quirky, unpredictable world of human interaction, where the truth is sometimes stretched, bent, or entirely reimagined.

Using every inch of the performance space (and sometimes even stepping beyond the stage), this immersive experience explores the intricacies of how we all bend the truth in everyday life. From the most mundane to the most absurd situations, the show offers a fresh perspective on the stories we tell ourselves and others, all through the lens of improvisational comedy.

Disclaimer: While we cannot legally confirm we’ve measured every improviser or that this is the only live comedy show with an orange, but we think it sounds pretty good, don’t you?

Join us for “The Orange of Truth”—an evening of unexpected laughter, creative exploration, and audience interaction that blurs the lines between performance and reality.

2.40pm
 

The 1960s, a time of antiwar protests, countercultural movements, and the “generation gap.” ImprompTwo returns to its roots with their deep dive into the gritty, American gothic style of improvised theatre. Set in the midwest, where hard work is futile and dreams have gone by the wayside, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN delves into what keeps people going when everything is changing and nowhere feels right. Inspired by the great American playwrights, they will create a beautiful, improvised play filled with stunning silences, passion, and pathos.

8:00pm
Unity 1
Liver Bards ‘Unified’ brings some of the many brilliant poets and bards from Ma Boyle’s basement to the Unity Theatre. Liver Bards is a time and place for poets and those that like to be around them to get together and share their truths and listen to others speak theirs.

There is always a need to gather in person to experience poetry and share our humanity. Why not explore Liver Bards and the many other rich and varied poetic events and opportunities? You will more than likely find places, spaces and faces where you are welcomed.

Keep poeteering! Keep barding!

 

Thank you to the hundreds of individual Liver Bards – audience and performers alike – who make the best nest and help our fantastic flock to fly.

Many thanks to Iain Hoskins and the Ma Boyle’s team for making us welcome over the years.

5:30pm

Unity 1

Horizon Film Festival showcases the work of Liverpool’s best and brightest upcoming filmmakers. We seek to give them the exposure, connections, and support they need to thrive in the industry.
Attending the festival is your opportunity to watch groundbreaking short films, talk to their creators, and discover the bold visionaries who will shape the future of our industry.
Join us in celebrating the art of film in the heart of Liverpool.

8.00pm
 

Twenty years ago The School of Night made its first appearance, at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Sixteen years ago it made its Liverpool debut at the legendary MelloMello cafe. Since then, its unique blend of literary improvisation has been seen all over the UK (National Theatre, British Library, Hay, Latitude and Edinburgh festivals) and beyond (in the US, Malaysia and all over Europe) as well as appearing on many radio shows, including BBC Radio’s The Verb. They are delighted to be back in Liverpool to perform new works by Shakespeare and others, summoned from thin air! Imagine if making stuff up was just more fun than writing it down…

 
‘Uproarious, intelligent, laugh-a-minute fare’
★ ★ ★ ★ Telegraph
‘Fearsomely able improvisers’
★ ★ ★ ★ Financial Times
‘Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn’t try it on.’
Billy Connolly

Day and weekend passes are available to purchase for the entire festival. There is a limited number of these passes available. Follow the link here to purchase yours.

7.00pm
 

For millennia, people have gathered around fires to share fables, weave myths, and cast shadows that dance on cave walls. Now, Allegory of the Cave breathes new life into these ancient traditions.

This unique production is brought to you by a skilled ensemble who combine traditional improv with the captivating arts of puppetry and shadow theatre, weaving elements of folklore and timeless storytelling into a living tapestry of improvised scenes. Prepare for big ideas, unforgettable characters, and epic adventures that unfold live before your eyes – no two performances alike, yet each a journey into the unknown.

Allegory of the Cave is the collaborative creation of Audra Goffeney, Rosalind Gregoire, Jennifer Jordan, and Robert MacKie. Together, they bring a rich blend of fantasy, folklore, and shadow theatre techniques to the world of improv, crafting performances that transport audiences into realms of myth and wonder.

 

“Raw, Beautiful and Haunting”

“This show completely changed what I thought improv could be”

“Breathtaking”

5.30pm
 

Box of Frogs, Birmingham’s premier Improv Group, brings you a fabulous evening of improvised comedy. The multi-talented and quick-witted Box of Frogs players conjure up hilarious spontaneous songs, sketches and scenes on the spur of the moment, all based on suggestions from the audience.

“superb night … great entertainment” – midlandsimprov.com

“this show was terrific fun as well as being great value for money“ – Brumhour

“Guarantee you’ll be laughing throughout.” – Love Midlands Theatre

“The brilliant and bouncy Box of Frogs is definitely a group to see at least once before you croak.” – Bum On A Seat

7.30pm
A movement ritual of care & resilience.
How has colonialism impacted the care we have received from our elders?
How did we experience their resilience?
What nurturing strategies can we share with each other to help us thrive, in a
mainstream society that seeks to racialise and dehumanise us?
Can we create rituals and spaces to care for ourselves?

Women from the Global Ethnic Majority whose families have been impacted by colonisation share their own histories of care, resilience, legacy, and how these stories live in their bodies. Going beyond everyday storytelling, transforming those energies into a live experience. This performance brings to audiences our latest research and development phase of this project, where we focused on weaving personal storytelling, movement, dramaturgy and community.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
The work deals with social construct of race and colonial histories/troubles.

CREATIVE TEAM: 
Fabíola is an interdisciplinary Afro-Portuguese artist based in Liverpool.
With a PhD scholarship in performance and decolonising studies (Liverpool Hope University) she is currently researching performance making as a space where people from the Global Ethnic Majority can gather to centre their stories, be witnessed, and nurtured – collectively creating a space for the ancestors to reverberate through us — pointing us toward the elders we want to become.
Fabiola is the maker of ‘A Home for Grief’, supported by Lancaster Arts, Unity Theatre, Contact Theatre, Glasgow Tramway & Arts Council England.
www.fabiolasantana.co.uk

Jessica Morgado is an emerging dance artists based in Cambridge. As a dancer and international collaborator her works include: WRESTLELADSWRESTLE by Jennifer Jackson Company (Cambridge); Turn 2024: Mother’s, Grandmothers and Their post Colonial Children with Fabiola Santana (Manchester; Company MARRAFA (Brussels); ‘HOME’ by Luís Marrafa at the Westrand – Cultuurcentrum Dilbeek; ‘Rebuild’ by Iolanda Rodrigues and Marina Sacramento (Portugal); ‘Oito’ by Lia Vohlgemuth and Nuno Santos (Portugal).

WilL Dickie is an interdisciplinary artist whose works received nationwide support, touring to 40+ UK venues including Southbank Centre, The Place & In Between Time. His recent show White Sun had its international premier this year in Boorloo (Perth, WA) as part of The Blue Room’s Summer Nights during Perth Fringe Festival. White Sun was first developed with Works Ahead 2020, co-ommissioned/co-produced by hÅb + Contact. Collaborative credits include choreography for Hanna Tuulikki; movement director at Regents Park Open Air Theatre; director of A Home for Grief by Fabiola Santana.
www.willdickie.co.uk

Created and performed by Fabíola Santana
Performed-Devised Jessica Morgado
Directed by WilL Dickie
Producer: Emmy Lahouel

Other creatives will be joining our team as the project keeps developing, we will update their names and contributions as they join.

This project is funded by the Arts Council England through National Lottery Project Grants; made possible by an Artist Residency with Metal Liverpool, and Fabíola being the recipient of the Turn Prize (2024) supported by Company Chameleon, Dance Consortia NW, hÅb + Project Auske. In partnership with the Unity Theatre (Liverpool), Tyn-y-Parc Studio (Wales), and Liverpool Hope University.