#168 Unabashedly John Woo
Panic. Murder. Missions. Improv.
28 MAY 2025
Hello, improvisers (and honoured guests).
So, Pretend Night London continues to go from strength to strength. We’re growing audiences, engagement and interest in theatrical improv.
And most importantly, we’re putting on damn good shows.
Look at that ensemble! These peerless improvisers led us on a journey of absolute delight - from the subtly-played intricacies of a squirrel mother/ daughter relationship to the inner-workings of a criminal band of kleptomaniacal birds.
I’m so proud of what we’re building with The Pretend Company and I can’t wait to show you what we’ve got planned for the rest of 2025 and beyond.
Rule of three
[Video games] Celeste
This is a beautiful platform game about a woman who gets panic attacks but is determined to climb a mountain. It’s been out for a while now so you can reliably find it for pennies whenever there’s a Steam sale on. For me, platform games need to feel ultra-responsive and this does a great job of that, giving you complete hair-trigger control and then throwing the most complicated traversal puzzles imaginable at you. You die a lot. And the game keeps count. I have died 828 times so far.
[TV] Murderbot
Watched this on a whim on Apple TV and it’s actually a pretty goofy comedy about a security robot that has secretly achieved free will and doesn’t want the crew he’s protecting to know. The crew in question are all scientists and space hippies. Everyone is excellent. It’s 30 minutes long, upbeat, breezy and genuinely funny. But it’s called Murderbot so I’m wondering if the right audience will find it?
[Movies] All the Mission: Impossibles
This week the final Mission: Impossible came out. So Laura and I have just finished a complete rewatch of the series - here’s a quick one-line review of each of them.
Mission: Impossible 1 Paranoid thriller, short hair
Mission: Impossible 2 Overblown actioner, long hair
Mission: Impossible 3 Sc-fi spy romp, medium hair
Mission: Impossible 4 (Ghost Protocol) Stunt fest, long hair
Mission: Impossible 5 (Rogue Nation) Ditto, medium hair
Mission: Impossible 6 (Fallout) Ditto, short hair
Mission: Impossible 7 (Dead Reckoning) Ditto, shorter hair
Mission: Impossible 8 (Final Reckoning) Ditto but tired, long hair
Gun to my head, knife to my throat, bomb to my chest - if I had to put them in order, from most enjoyable to least, I’d go: 4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 1, 7, 8. And in my heart I still love 2 more than most people because of how unabashedly John Woo it is.
Spotlight
This Sunday 1st June, I am taking to the stage of the wonderful Questors Playhouse to perform a duo show with none other than Sally Hodgkiss.
Sally and I used to run an improv theatre company together called Unmade Theatre Co (along with the equally brilliant Emily Murphy). I learned so much about creating slower, more grounded, relationship-based improv during that time so this is something of a homecoming for me.
The Questors is a a 350-seat venue and obviously we’re not going to fill it but we’d welcome a few more bums on seats if at all possible. Tickets are £5.
The show is part of a much larger weekend of wonderful community theatre shenanigans at the Questors - including another workshop by me and a performance by local improvisers based on The Traitors. Check it out, it’s a magical place.
Longform thoughts
There is something really special about having a group of friends that will support and elevate your silly ideas. This is not a phenomenon reserved uniquely for improvisers either - in most friendship groups we find a free-wheeling shared sense of humour that means we laugh longest and hardest with the people we know the best.
This week, I’m writing about The science of making your friends laugh and sharing a scientifically-researched scale so that you can judge engagement accurately.
Radio contact
Radio is not great at restaurant etiquette. He prefers to stay on my lap at all times because he loves me/ wants to eat my food.