Comedy and climate in unique improv drama
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Expect the unexpected is the message for those attending the new show from the six-strong Dublin-based Broad Strokes improv group, which will be performed in the city’s Nuns’ Island Theatre on Friday, August 30. B.S. Incorporated: We’re Serving Climate is the title of the show, which is a spin-off from a work they performed at last year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. That sold out its eight-night run and won them a nomination for Best Ensemble Award.
Like B.S. Incorporated, the Fringe drama was an improvised work explains Ciara Berkeley, who founded Broad Strokes in January 2022. For the that festival, the performers created an entirely improvised business conference, featuring six people working in a fictional start-up company.
This was a different show every night, because audience involvement is crucial to improv, she says.
Broad Strokes have now revived the fictional conference but with an extra edge B.S. Incorporated: We’re Serving Climate, takes on an actual problem that needs to be addressed and the troupe will be responding to that, says Ciara.
“B.S. could stand for Broad Strokes or B**l S**t,” she adds with a laugh.
What will happen in the show at Nuns’ Island will be based on audience input, because the actors will begin by calling on someone to suggest the type of business that the group is running.
Improv – or spontaneity – has been at the heart of Broad Strokes since the beginning. They perform regularly in Dublin and have had two sold out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in 2022 and 2023. A theme or location, as suggested by someone from the audience, is usually the starting point for an hour-long show, Ciara explains.
“It’s not a geographical location, but a place, like a library or a school,” she says. “You have to have a location to ground the characters and then you develop a relationship between the characters.”
Equally, the starting point might be a relationship, For instance, the suggestion ‘bride and groom’ will result in an 60-minute show that could go in a variety of directions, depending on the evening and the audience.
Pictured: The members of the Broad Strokes troupe. Back, from left: Niamh McAllister, Ciara Berkeley, Elishka Lane. Front; Mae Leahy, Marty Breen and Róisín McGuill (onscreen).