Review: Tales From The Wasteland – Spielman Theatre
Tales From The Wasteland is perfect for a chilled out night at the theatre
Tales From The Wasteland is a Bristol improv group that resides in a post-apocolyptic dystopian world.
The company grew from the Unscripted Players programme at the former Bristol Improv Theatre. Since then, they’ve developed a show strong on the Mad Max energy and full of dark comedy.
The performance in the Spielman Theatre of Tobacco Factory Theatres this week was broken up into two acts.
Act One was a longer improv piece based on an audience suggestion of ‘scooters’.
Act Two was a quick fire series of fast improv around audience suggestions lifted from a skull.
Audiences influence the creation and direction of every story, meaning no two shows will ever be the same.
To gain entry to a safe bunker, each member of the improv team had to tell a story to see if they are allowed in. It’s a smart way to bring a cohesive thread through the show.
The first half of the evening was an extended piece of improv telling the story of the Scootars. It was a story of class divide and survival resulting in friendship. The performers were divided between those who must scoot on rubble wasteland and the privileged people who have smooth paths on which to ride. They are united by their worry of the Scootars, a savage group of people who are moving through the Wastelands.
This story featured some wonderful physical theatre, including bare-hand puppetry and an excellent portrayal of a dying centaur.
Somehow the piece ended up with a fight for survival over Epsom printer ink versus the mysterious ‘third party’ ink – the ink that no one quite knows where it comes from but will probably break your printer.
It was an impressive work around a really tricky randomly drawn audience suggestion.
After the interval, we had a series of fast improv stories. Arguably, this was the much funnier half of the show with some excellent horror that would have been brilliant developed into longer stories.
A Bootleg DVD Seller was one audience suggestion. The storyline developed into a long abandoned Blonkbusters DVD store. Hooky DVDs such as Ion King were left to decay amongst out of date Corn Pop – which turned two performers into hilarious B Movie monsters.
There was another story about a cursed alarm clock bestowing death upon anyone who handled it. This was actually a fantastic storyline that could give Blumhouse a run for its money. It had plenty of hallmarks from Final Destination in the set up of the storyline and was fabulously entertaining.
The final story of the night involved Cadaver Kav, another audience suggestion dropped on the company’s Instagram page. This turned the performers into a giant moving mass of a monster, again a wonderful piece of comedy horror and a strong end to the show.
The improv company work really well together as each scenario develops. The short snappy scenes of Act Two forced fast-paced thinking which resulted in some excellent short storytelling.
Tales From The Wasteland is perfect for a chilled out night at the theatre. You don’t have to invest much headspace. Just sit back and be entertained instead of another Netflix movie night with a 4.7 rating on IMDB.
Tales From The Wasteland will be at the Alma Tavern Theatre on the 23 January 2027
To book, visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/almatheatrecompany/2513565
For more information about Tales From The Wasteland follow the company on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wasteland_improv/
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