Are you looking for some improv to see this weekend or Monday evening? Then look no further as the Banana Hut Gang are performing their sold out Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Choose Your Own Improv at the Bridewell Theatre in London. Only just last week they were performing a set at the Lord Mayor’s show in Paternoster Square, St Paul’s. I caught up with James to find out all about what they have in store for this weekends show!

Choose Your Own Improv!

Date:Sunday 17/11, Monday 18/11

Location: Bridewell Theatre

Price: £8

Time:

Sunday 17/11 @ 15:00

Monday 18/11 @ 19:30

Ticket Link: https://sedos.co.uk/secure/boxoffice/production.php

Hello James tell us all about who you all are and an unknown fact about your troupe!

We’re the Banana Hut Gang amd one of us has performed at Eurovision

How did your troupe form?

We meet through Sedos – London’s Premier Amateur Theatre Company, some of us had worked on different productions and through our regular Friday improv drop-in sessions we decided to form a group to explore different long form formats

How did you come up with the name of your troupe? Was it difficult?

It was a long complicated process involving many hours and meetings but we settled on Banana Hut Gang as it’s a bacronym for Brewer’s Hall Gardens our usual rehearsal space

 How did the show come about?

We played with different ideas of how you could tell a story – we tried telling a story backwards but decided we really liked the unpredictability of giving the audience choices that could take us one way or another

How did you get into improv?

Some of us had done improv courses outside of Sedos and we brought those skills to the different productions and thought it would be cool to try and create a whole show through Improv

Tell us a little bit about the show that are happening this week?

We’re bringing our sell-out Edinburgh Festival Fringe show back to our London home! In Choose Your Own… Improv the audience give us a few starting points and we go off on an adventure – whenever a choice presents itself we let the audience decide and we go down that path and see where it ends up

It is the month of november, the month of fireworks! What is the key to having a spark on stage with fellow team members? How do. You create a bond?

We really work closely together, everyone gets a chance to lead and we work to each other’s strengths. We also make each other laugh lots

You performed at the Lord Mayor show last week how was that?

‘It was a really fun experience. We were wearing head microphones and performing to a young audience in the rain. Thankfully the bells of St Paul’s stopped ringing long enough for people to enjoy our Pirate adventure’

Banana Hut Gang performing at the London Lord Mayors Show

How do you warm up before a show?

We love a good mindmeld and our own crazy version of Zip Zap Boing!

What have been some of the best suggestions that you have been given in a show and why?

Definitely the ones that seem out of the ordinary but stretch us – doing a Biblical adventure sticks in the memory

If people want to find out more about you where can they follow you on social media?

We’re on Facebook, instagram and Twitter

https://www.facebook.com/bananahutgang/

@bananahutgang

And Finally in three words – Why should people come and see the show

You decide everything!