Love and Misinformation is at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Aug 12-24. Buy Tickets
Connected and heartfelt, revolutionary and irreverent, the Improvised Play is always of its time. Like the works of Caryl Churchill, we break and remake our format every night. Anything is possible, but we guarantee you’ll be surprised, provoked, and moved. We’ve chosen to emulate Caryl Churchill because we’re impressed by her honesty, her flexibility, her quiet genius and her revolutionary spirit. We hope her influence will shine through our work.
Improvisational theatre is live theatre in its truest form; alive, flexible, reactionary. Love and Misinformation is one of London’s most invigorating theatre productions. It’s a living, breathing tribute to Caryl Churchill, and to British theatre. It’s of its time in a way few other plays can be.
“With each play, she discovers new genres and forms. She then discards them and moves on, opening up possibilities for other playwrights to explore. I think many people writing today don’t even realise they’ve been influenced by her. She’s changed the language of theatre. And very few playwrights do that.”- Marius von Mayenburg
“I like to think of Caryl Churchill as the Emily Dickinson of the theatre world. Her dialogue sounds like the staccato rhythms of speech punctuated by dashes. Characters interrupt each other, speak over each other, and generally leave others (often characters and audience alike) to decipher what they’re actually talking about. Churchill’s reputation is understandably great, as her hand has given the theatre plays like Top Girls, Cloud Nine, A Number, and Far Away, just to name a few.” Bess Rowen, Huffington Post.
Produced by Presence Theatre Collective
Director: Stephen Davidson
Stephen Davidson
Stephen Davidson is the Artistic Director of Improvable, QI: Queer Improv, Carmen: A gender-swapped Film Noir Fantasy, Love and Misinformation: An Improvised Play in the style of Caryl Churchill, and co-director of Zeal: The Pride Improv Festival. He currently also plays in Castles in the Air, an improvised Studio Ghibli film, in The Nursery Theatre’s mainstage ensemble, and in duo The Happiest People in the World with Erick Castellan. Stephen teaches improv through Improvable, Hoopla, City Academy, and the Nursery Theatre, and is also a diversity officer for Hoopla Improv. He is the author of Play Like an Ally and Improvising Gender and has taught and performed all over the world.
Cast: Avril Poole, Carla Keen, Chloe Kennedy, Invi Brenna, Jon Nguyen, Juwel Haque, Karo Kriks, Leander Vyvey, Maria Skolozynska, Olivia Gibbs-Fairley
Avril Poole is an actress, improviser and stand up. She has been performing improv for many years. She was a founder member of Upstairs Downton, who performed sell out shows at the Edinburgh Festival three years running. She is also a founder member of LadyProv who have a residency at Hoopla with their Character, Sketch and Improv night. Avril is also a member of Carmen: The Improvised Film Noir.
Carla Keen is a writer and improviser based in Cambridge, UK. She has trained with improv teachers from iO, Second City, Showstoppers, Free Association and the Hideout Theatre. She runs Cambridge Improv Jam and Red Cape Improv, as well as artistically directing The Ministry of Unplanned Occurrences. @carlakeen @unplannedm
Chloe Kennedy is an improviser and theatre maker from Aberdeen. She studied at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she received a Distinction MFA in Actor Training and Coaching. She has taught, mentored and assistant directed at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her research covers Narcissism, Complaints Procedures, Sexual Harrassment, Alternative Academia, Intersectional Approaches to Improvisation and Acting. She readily draws from queer narratives, abstract writing and improv for her directing style. She has a close relationship with Houselights, Wolab, Dirty Rascals and RCSSD – where she has been invited back to research and teach.
Jon Nguyen is based in Norwich and has been improvising for 2 years. Jon believes that improv is for everyone and that having fun is by far the most important thing. He has had training with Dogface, the Nursery, Hoopla and the Maydays. He performs regularly with the Dogface short form troupe and the long form montage group of Cyborg Sideboard. You can also hear him on the comedy podcast panel show Idiot Wind. Jon now coaches with Dogface in Norwich. Twitter @mrjonnguyen
Invi Brenna is a UK-based theatre director/-maker and translator. She left her native Norway for the UK over six years ago and has only looked back for the occasional holiday. Her major projects include two new translations and adaptations of Henrik Ibsen’s plays, but her work spans from spoken word to stage design. From a working-class background, she does best to make the arts accessible to all – the last thing she wants to be is a crab in a bucket.
Juwel Haque is an improviser and director. He created improv shows United and Tag FM, performs regularly with Somewhat Theatre and Slice of Society, and features on many other projects. He has trained with Hoopla, The Free Association, The Nursery, iO, and elsewhere. A part of London’s improv community since 2014, Juwel is Theatre Manager at The Nursery.
Karolina Kriks is an actor, voice-over artist and improviser, originally from Austria with Polish roots. She is a cast member of the improv groups “Improvable”, “3 Worlds”, “Carmen” & “Love and Misinformation” and also teaches improvisation in the form of showcase courses and drop-in classes. When not doing improvisation she can be seen in scripted plays or in front or behind the camera as actor or director. She enjoys working towards a creative vision and has recently produced her own little screen project. Fully emerging into a creative environment she also does Stand up comedy or has fun recording voice-overs.
Leander Vyvey is a Belgian former pro kitesurfer and actor, who has worked in TV, film and theatre both in the UK and in Spain. He will be appearing in the new UKTV series ‘Flack’, with Anna Paquin, in spring 2019.
Maria Skolozynska has a degree in marketing, and has completed a rare double; attending both business and drama school. She is a charity worker and has coordinated projects in Lebanon, Palestine and South Sudan. She also runs her own charity “Share a Meal with the Homeless” which coordinates the distribution of homemade leftover food across Poland. She’s been improvising for over three years and trained in Szkoła Impro in Poland, iO Chicago and Hoopla, FA and The Nursery in London. She is a member of the Nursery House Team ‘Qwench’. She is Polish and lives with her boyfriend and their dog “Przygoda” in Croydon.
Olivia Gibbs-Fairley started improvising in 2015 when she joined the University of Bristol improv society, Bristol Improv. She performed in a wide variety of shows with the society including two at the Edinburgh Fringe; Bristol Improv Takes Over the World (2016) and Date Night with Bristol Improv (2017). She was also a member of sci-fi improv troupe Real Positive Poles and performed with them in Spon Trek: The Next Improvisation. She is currently training at Monkey Toast under Paul Foxcroft. Outside of improv she is a theatre critic for A Younger Theatre, has just completed Soho Theatre’s Drag and Cabaret Lab and is looking forward to starting her MA in Acting this September.