All this month we are talking to acts that are performing at the Liverpool Improv Festival which takes place between Thursday the 24th – Sunday the 27th of April 2025. Today we speak to the team Loo-Prov.

Tell us about:

Your latest improv show for Liverpool Improv Festival? 

Anna: Loo-prov! is a fully improvised show set in the women’s toilets. We ask the audience for a suggestion for the location and it takes us into a world of fascinating relationships and stories. It’s heartfelt and often extremely silly.

Lelda: It’s always fun and silly but it’s also usually very tender. We focus on the relationships that are deepened in the privacy of public toilets. We (the Loo-Prov! cast) love each other very much, we’re close friends and we keep showing up for one another. I think that really shows in our performances. 

Your favourite suggestion you have been given?

Harmony: As boring as it sounds, Tesco is favourite of mine. I loved finding the fun in the everyday-ness of working and shopping at Tesco.

Anna: We were given Disney World as a location once and we all played Disney performers dressed up as characters, which was extremely fun. I enjoyed improvising going to the toilet in a Donald Duck costume. 

Lelda: We ask for a location, and we were given Liverpool Football Club. I have no idea about sport generally but as an Australian, football is soccer and it’s so off my radar! 

Karolina: I liked Liverpool Football Club, I’m not a football fan so we completely reinvented the way the sport operates! 

Your favourite venue to perform at:

Karolina: Blanche Improv in London. It might not be the swankiest venue but it is full of love. 

Anna: Obviously Blanche. It’s run by the amazing Lelda, and it’s pink which is my favourite colour. Plus the audiences are always very supportive and lovely. I also have a soft spot for the Free Association’s theatre at the De Beauvoir Arms, it was the first place I ever performed improv so it feels quite special.

Harmony: Without a doubt, Blanche! A space built with love, care and silly fun at heart. 

Lelda: Well, I’m extremely biased but it has to be Blanche. (It’s the improv theatre I set up, so I can’t say anything different!!)

Improv hero:

Harmony: I’ve got lots of love for my musical improv heroes, including the cast of Showstopper! and Zach and Jess of Offbook. 

Karolina:  I don’t think I have one hero, there’s plenty of improvisers that I admire for various reasons. Some that I like the most are Suzie Barrett, Sarah Claspell, Jim Woods. 

Anna: I love Suzi Barrett. Not only is she an amazing improviser but she has an excellent and extremely useful podcast too. I also have a lot of respect for Ben Schwartz and Kiell Smith-Bynoe who work so hard in the US and UK respectively to bring improv to a wider audience. 

Lelda: It’s corny but Amy Poehler and Tiny Fey- they came up at a time when women had even more barriers to a career in comedy than we have now. 

Dream venue to play at:

Karolina: Hammersmith Apollo

Harmony: I’d love to do a show at the Soho Theatre.

Anna: I’m going to aim high- Radio City

Lelda: Any theatre in New York- Caveat, The Pit, BCC, UCB, I’d be thrilled to be at any of those venues! 

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show:

Harmony: Nervous excitement – who knows what’s going to happen?! The beauty of improv!

Karolina: I’m usually super excited, ready for the fun I’m going to have with my fellow improvisers (friends). 

Anna: Excitement and slight disbelief that people have actually turned up to watch me have a lot of fun on stage with my friends. 

Lelda: Depends on the show and the day, but I’m usually very excited that I get to play with people I love and admire. 

The hardest improv suggestion to perform and why:

Karolina: Any film titles, just in case audience expect a parody of that film. 

Harmony: Mm anything to do with the current affairs. It’s impossible to “yes, and” a lot of the awful things happening out there. 

Anna: For Loo-prov! it’s anything historic. Public toilets for women didn’t really start until the end of the 19th century. Until then women would just have to go home if they needed the loo. And as our show is set in the women’s toilets it’s hard to be true to the format and history! 

Lelda: Oh, anything weirdly sexual. I’m conscious of not reinforcing boring representations we’ve all seen a million times. So when we get a suggestion that seems to lead us towards that kind of show it just takes extra work to make the show fun and surprising… and I have to monitor my own feelings, I get irritated by suggestions that seem to be intentionally provoking a specific kind of show. 

Essential items you always take with you to a show?

Harmony: An airy top – improv always makes me so sweaty… 

Karolina: Comfy shoes and water bottle. I’m terrified of getting a dry throat mid show! 

Anna: My improv notebook. It’s full of scrawled snippets of wisdom from the brilliant coaches I’ve had over the years. It’s very hard to decipher my handwriting, but I carry it with me as a talisman. 

Lelda: Comfy shoes, I like to climb on things and I hate being confined by my footwear. 

Describe your fans in three words:

Anna: Simply the best

Harmony: Simply the best!

Karolina: Lovely, silly, crazy

Lelda: THEY ARE AWESOME! 

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

Karolina: Shows at Brighton Fringe and maybe some other festivals.

Anna: We’re developing an hour long show and hoping to perform at the Brighton Fringe in May.

Lelda: We are very excited to be able to share our show with more people. 

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