All this month we are talking to acts that are performing at the Liverpool Improv Festival which takes place between May 7th – 10th. We will be speaking to acts every Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30pm on the run up to the festival. Today we speak to Empty Set.

Tell Us about:

Your latest improv show you are bringing to Liverpool Improv Fest ? 

Empty Set is bringing here-elsewhere, an improvised performance where the space becomes the starting point, or “audience suggestion.” Using live streams from cameras, projection and live drawing, we build scenes from the textures and details of the room itself. Each show is shaped by the architecture, details and atmosphere of the space we’re in.

Your favourite suggestion you have been given?

Our show doesn’t use audience suggestions in a “traditional improv” way. We prefer to find them already hiding in the room. One of our favourite starting points was discovering a tiny graffiti cat under the tech booth in a theatre. It was so joyful and became a whole world very quickly.

Your favourite venue to perform at:

We had so much fun taking over Theater Ida in Zurich for their residency last September. It gave us the space to experiment and develop this show.

Improv hero:

Who? We’re too busy listening to walls.

Dream venue to play at:

Our dream venue is always “on location.” We love site specific work, which is the joy of this show. The inspiration is the location. A forest, an old factory, a cathedral. And now Unity Theatre, with its own atmosphere, details and stories to uncover.

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

Always excited. The show can feel meditative, but we also play, draw, and occasionally run around the audience like clowns seeing if anyone has cool shoes we can use as inspiration.

The hardest improv suggestion to perform and why:

We work best when the starting point is open and sensory. If something feels too fixed, it can limit where the work can go. That said, misreading each other’s visual ideas is part of the process, and often leads somewhere unexpected.

Essential items you always take with you to a show?

Pens, paper, cameras, projectors, cables, and a few minutes to see what the room is hiding.

Describe your fans in three words:

Curious. Playful. Imaginative.

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

Developing here-elsewhere across different spaces and pushing the visual language of improv further. More layering, more risk, and new ways of using improvisation as a tool to create performance and theatre.

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