How do you rehearse a play when half of it changes every night?
That’s the idea behind Conundrum, one of this year’s productions at Festival by the Marsh. Audience suggestions shape the second half of the story, meaning no two performances unfold the same way.
Written and directed by Tolkien Merrigan, the production begins as a traditional murder mystery before leaving the script behind. From there, actors build the story in real time using audience suggestions. The result is a different performance every night.
“What if there was a murder mystery, and halfway through, it became improvised?” Merrigan said.
Although the performance feels spontaneous, Merrigan said it took weeks of rehearsal to prepare the cast.
Many of the performers had little or no experience with improvisation, so rehearsals focused first on the fundamentals before moving on to the unscripted portion of the show.
“We didn’t actually rehearse the second half of the show until very late in the rehearsal process because I wanted to first focus on getting those foundational skills built up,” he said.
Once the script ends, audience suggestions can change where scenes take place, influence the direction of the story and even help determine who the murderer is through audience applause.
During Wednesday night’s performance, one audience suggestion sent the mystery to the aisle of a Home Depot, where the actors built an entirely new scene on the spot.
Festival by the Marsh artistic director Ron Kelly Sprurles said the idea immediately appealed to him.
“I thought it was a great idea and sounded like fun,” Kelly Sprurles said. “I just thought it was a funny, unusual idea to have a play that’s kind of half scripted and then just wraps up with the audience’s ideas and interaction.”
Kelly Sprurles said productions like Conundrum reflect the festival’s goal of introducing audiences to different artistic experiences while giving performers opportunities to present new work.
“We try to offer as much as we can for artists to be able to present their work, engage with other artists and engage with the community,” he said.
Among those in the audience was Mount Allison University student Sydney Penney, who was attending her first live improv performance.
“I thought it was so, so funny,” Penney said. “It was so impressive, the improv and just how the actors played off of each other. They make it look so easy.”
Another audience member Elizabeth Harper, who was also seeing live improv for the first time, said she left impressed by the performance.
“I really, really enjoyed it,” Harper said. “I thought it was amazing.”
For Merrigan, the laughs are only part of it.
He hopes audiences leave with a greater appreciation for improvisation and that productions like Conundrum encourage more improv theatre in Sackville.
“I’d love to see more improv happen in Sackville,” he said.
Festival by the Marsh continues through July 25 with theatre productions, concerts, workshops and other performances taking place across Sackville.
