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 (20 years of) The School of Night.

Tell us about:

Your latest improv show for Liverpool Improv Festival? 

Our 20^th anniversary dates will be a celebration of the procedures and processes we’ve been developing since we began – we’re still seeking for new paths in ‘Hard Bardic’ and literary improvisation. Expected the unexpected!!

Your favourite suggestion you have been given?

In our Chaucerian procedure we ask for the story of an ancestor of one of our audience members. We have had the privilege of retelling the tales of some illustrious forebears, but the inventor of Jaffa Cakes has to be a highlight.

Your favourite venue to perform at:

We’ve been so lucky over the years: London’s Royal Court, Jeremy Beadle’s library, the National Theatre and the banks of the River Avon. But for the last 5 years we’ve made a pilgrimage to The Willow Globe in Central Wales; a magical venue in a magical  setting. Make the trip!

Improv hero:

Dana Andersen, ‘The Yoda of improv’ (a great teacher and director in Edmonton, Alberta) was a big early influence. And Lee Simpson, because he is (according to the legendary Roddy Maude-Roxby of Theatre Machine) ‘the best improviser [he’s] ever seen’!

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

Exhilarating terror.

The hardest improv suggestion to perform and why:

The suggestion of someone who’s trying to be cleverer or funnier than you.

Essential items you always take with you to a show?

Faith, hope, and trust in my fraters.

Describe your fans in three words:

Eclectic, odd, discerning.

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

Something we’ve never done before. Highwire risks and an embrace of succefailuress. 

Thank you again for all your support in reading and engaging with the website.

If you want to help support the website then you can! You can buy Holly a cup of tea (and a biscuit!)