In picking Oxford Castle and Prison as a setting for an improvisational comedy show called “Infinite Jesters”, The Oxford Imps certainly made a fitting choice. Settling onto the stone steps outside the castle on a breezy May evening, to the sound of gentle “bardcore” music, it was easy to embrace the atmosphere of medieval silliness which lingered in the air even before the show began.
Events kicked off as the stage door was abruptly flung open, with Scarlett Burley delivering a frantic address to the audience – sorry – to the “Nobles of the Court!”, announcing the imminent arrival of the King (played by Sali Adams during the opening night’s performance). Cape whirling around with reckless abandon, Adams brought an infectious energy in the role of petulant child-King, and successfully walked the line between grandiose and ridiculous. From the opening of the show, Adams drew gusts of laughter from the audience, quipping that the previous court jester “sadly did perish – when I executed him…on my orders.”
Indeed, selecting a new court jester is the premise of “Infinite Jesters”, with seven ‘peasants’ competing to win the favour of the ‘King’ (and the audience) through a series of improv sketches and games. In their role as nobles, the audience was repeatedly called on to give prompts (usually some combination of location/job/object). These prompts would determine the Imps’ skits, resulting in a show that will be different every performance. Facilitating these prompts largely fell to the King, whose boundless enthusiasm encouraged strong audience participation – always a difficult feat in improv performances. Whenever the jesters took centre stage, the King would sit down with the audience and enjoy the show with them, effectively creating a feeling of intimacy and established rapport with the Imps.
Throughout the show, Isaac Dunn provided musical accompaniment, never overpowering the acts but always adding appropriate dramatic effect. Whether heralding a sudden change of scenery from tavern to forest or heralding an Imp’s upcoming death, the piano and guitar music constantly served to add another layer of comedy. Moreover, the small number of props were used to good comedic effect: if any Imp was deemed insufficiently amusing, for example, they would be imprisoned in the Oxford Castle stocks. This would usually be the result of an ‘insufficiently funny’ improv performance in the Imps’ numerous skits which made up the show.
The opening skit – that of the “Leak (or Leek) in the Tower” – became progressively more entertaining and unhinged, as the tale rapidly passed between different Imps, with the King repeatedly adding new instructions of how it should be performed. Consequently, the tale ended in a Scouse accent, in iambic pentameter, and in the style of Chaucer.
Following this, The Oxford Imps performed two-person skits, with an initial prompt from the audience. At frequent intervals, the King would pause the scene, one Imp would be replaced, and the ‘pause’ moment would be used to create a fresh scenario. This ability to bounce off one another’s ideas enabled a particularly strong performance from the Imps, switching from a brothel to a diamond hunt, to making lunch, to preparing for Wizard School, with apparent ease. Here, Chloe Jacobs and Burley gave particularly strong performances, bringing the audience to howls of laughter as they described Gwendoline’s unfortunate love affair. “Gwendoline, he’s run off with Rosaline.” “Ah! My cousin.”
Another skit involving romantic drama was, in my opinion, one of the evening’s funniest moments. An audience member handed her phone over to Daisy Stone, for a sketch in which she could only respond to Jacobs using the texts from a specific chat. Dramatic accusations of teaching peasants “maths classes” were hurled around, before a love drama unfolded, resulting in gems such as: “Who tf-” “-Ah yes, TF, the fairest lady in the land!” The contrast between Stone’s modern-day slang “Oh yes, this is true. Or am I buggin’” and Jacobs’s antiquated language was unfailingly hilarious. Indeed, Jacobs was a highlight of the show, frequently chuckling along with the audience and looking as though she was having a blast.
Ballads involving audience members were another standout part of the show, with volunteer audience members responding to numerous questions, which the Imps used to form ballads about them. The “Ballad of Niamh from Bicester” and the song demonstrating that an Oxford history student would be the best choice of squire for the King were both extremely entertaining and impressive, with the entire contents of the songs depending on the audience’s prompts.
The only fumbled act in the performance was that of the story of “Sly James and the Grail”. This tale (like that of the ventriloquist-curdled-cheese-witch-hunt sketch) had the misfortune of dragging on for slightly too long – and was disrupted midway through by the appearance of a fox on the mound. Whilst The Imps had the presence of mind to incorporate the fox into the tale, the audience’s subsequent fixation on the fox, rather than the story, as it continued to unfold, forms a somewhat damning judgement on their engagement with this tale in particular.
Yet, overall, “Infinite Jesters” was really very funny, with the Imps rising to each fresh audience challenge without missing a beat and managing to convey a large variety of characters. Josie Peters particularly shone here – her joint sketch with Burley about a plague pit, in which she played almost every character, was little short of brilliant. Peters leapt from place to place on the stage, transforming from plague digger Martin to the flirtatious Charlotte, to their supercilious and vaguely boss, to a demented lute player who can only really be described as Gollum-like. Her range of physical comedy and accents were fantastic to watch and accompanied with almost constant laughter.
All in all, I would definitely return to watch more improv by the Oxford Imps, whether for their weekly performances in the Jericho Tavern or for another of their “Infinite Jesters” shows. After all, every performance is different and as unpredictable as the last! As for who ended up as the appointed court jester, and who finished by having fruit and water hurled at them in the stocks…why not go and see for yourself?
[“Infinite Jesters”, a show by The Oxford Imps, is running at Oxford Castle and Prison Wed 21-Fri 23 May]