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 Allegory Of The Cave.

Tell us about:

Your latest improv show for Liverpool Improv Festival? 

Our last show was the Amsterdam International Improv Festival. We told an eerie folktale about that itching in the back of your brain that follows you through your life and tells you you’re not good enough.

Some audience members said the show was “genuinely scary”, which is maybe the best improv compliment I can think of.

Your favourite suggestion you have been given?

I think all of our suggestions have been really cool. They’ve been thoughtful, honest and genuine responses to the question we ask at the top of the show.

You’ll catch me saying this after every gig we do but I’m gonna say the last one: “that feeling you have that someone is following 10 paces behind you in the dark”.

Your favourite venue to perform at:

We’ve only just started but I’ll always love a proscenium stage. Any theatre with a proper box to open up the audience’s imagination is one I want to be in.

Improv hero:

Let me just grab my soap box for a second. Improv isn’t about individual performers, it’s about groups coming together to build something spontaneously. It’s alchemical and ephemeral, no single person can personify it, pin it down, or master it.

Zac Oyama.

Dream venue to play at:

Soho Theatre. That’s my personal dream. Main Stage. Please and thank you!

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

I used to try and go on stage physically hungry. I wanted my mind sharp, so I’d have a small salad hours before the gig. This, in retrospect is both pretentious and deeply weird.

Now though? I think it’s more a mix of curiosity and anxiety. I love that feeling where all your planning and design takes a backseat and you let chaos pull you through a story.

The hardest improv suggestion to perform and why:

I used to do a show called Piggyback. We made a three act play based on the work of 3 separate stand-up’s sets. That was hard. I ended up buying everyone notebooks to keep track of what happened before. Some shows even had diagrams.

Essential items you always take with you to a show?

My makeup bag. If I’m gonna make some stranger stare at my face for 40 minutes I may as well look cute.

Describe your fans in three words:

Spooky, thoughtful cuties.

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

As a group, nothing yet but follow us on instagram, for updates about the show and work the cast is doing later in the year.

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