Opinion: Why are stars so drawn to improvised work on stage?

Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] and White Rabbit Red Rabbit are back in London, attracting a host of star names to test their improv skills.

Summary

• Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] and White Rabbit Red Rabbit have both returned to London
• These improvised shows offer performers a thrilling challenge
• Star names from Benedict Cumberbatch to David Tennant are keen to test their improv skills
• These shows require total trust in the audience as well and are pure theatre

As much as actors love performing a classic work, getting their teeth into a great established script, they also adore doing improvised shows. The Park Theatre’s hugely popular murder mystery Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] is back for a fourth edition, with a rotating starry cast (all playing the sheriff) including Ian McKellen, Gillian Anderson, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Thompson, Martin Freeman, Sara Pascoe, Harry Hill, Katherine Parkinson, Simon Pegg, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

London has also seen the return of Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s incredible theatrical experiment White Rabbit Red Rabbit, which cleverly explores obedience and control through its format of having a guest (unrehearsed) actor follow a script and rope in audience members. Playing at the West End’s Duchess Theatre this summer, the rotating cast includes David Tennant, Riz Ahmed, Luke Thompson, Jodie Whittaker, and Kathryn Hunter.

But just why do actors keep seizing the opportunity to prove their improv chops? Find out ahead of your trips to these latest starry productions.

Book Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] 4 tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

It’s a thrilling challenge

Actors at the pinnacle of their careers might well have conquered Shakespeare and Chekhov, Noël Coward and Harold Pinter. So, what’s the next challenge? Enter improvised shows like Whodunnit and White Rabbit Red Rabbit, which offer a completely different test of their performing abilities. Instead of studying a script beforehand, learning lines, rehearsing with a director, and drilling the show, they step onto a stage not knowing a single word that they’re going to say or what might happen.

That must be equal parts thrilling and terrifying – a real adrenaline rush, the theatre equivalent of doing an extreme sport. Every line of dialogue, every plot twist, every prop or piece of interaction with the cast or audience comes as a surprise, and requires fast reaction times and an ability to go with the flow. Performers might even surprise themselves with how they deliver a line or engage with the piece.

There are also numerous successful shows which offer more of a hybrid: productions which are created on the spot but have a set framework and returning cast members, like the long-running Jane Austen improv show Austentatious or Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. In all those cases, performers are still asked to be in the moment, be spontaneous and imaginative, and embrace the unknown.

It’s pure theatre

At the heart of theatre is the concept that we are all in one space together, part of this art of creation. It wouldn’t work without the commitment of both the company and the audience, all listening and responding to one another, as we conjure up a world. Improvised shows take that idea and run with it.

If you’re alone on stage, whether in White Rabbit Red Rabbit, or perhaps the play Every Brilliant Thing – which has some spontaneous moments via audience participation, and which recently had a hit West End run (with guest stars ranging from Lenny Henry to Minnie Driver) and then wowed Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe – your relationship with the audience is more critical than ever. Likewise, as an audience member, you play an active and vital role in the world of the show, even more so if you’re called up on stage.

Doing improvised work is a way of reconnecting with the wonderful notion that theatre is a communal project. There are seldom complex sets or special effects in these types of productions, but that act of collective creation becomes a sort of magic trick in itself, and must be hugely rewarding for the performers who get to experience it.

It doesn’t matter if it goes wrong

Or, at the very least, doesn’t quite go to plan! That can actually be part of the charm of these shows – proof that they really are live and that the stars are totally unrehearsed. It’s embedded in theatre that work can be different every single night, and that’s doubly the case in improvised productions, especially those with very different guest stars each show.

Unexpected audience interactions can produce great comedic or even poignant moments, as happened frequently in Every Brilliant Thing. Meanwhile Whodunnit is a hilarious watch whether its murder mystery spoof – which this year has a Wild West theme, and includes singalong saloon songs – goes off without a hitch, or whether the visiting sheriff (whose lines are delivered to them via an earpiece) is momentarily thrown by something they’re asked to do – such as deliver a dance routine or do an impression of an elephant. Audiences love it either way.

That gives the performer a wonderful sense of freedom: we’re on their side no matter what, so they don’t have to worry about everything being perfect. Or, in the case of White Rabbit Red Rabbit, whether or not they willingly follow the script is in fact a core part of the concept – it’s both a whimsical game and a thought-provoking exercise. The performer is asked to bring all of themselves to the show, to be open to its possibilities, and to literally play. What could be more enticing than that?

Main photo credit: Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] 4 (Photo courtesy of the production). Inset: White Rabbit Red Rabbit in 2024, Austentatious, Every Brilliant Thing (Photos courtesy of the production, by Paul Gilbey, Helen Murray)