The Bard’s Birthday Bash – Friargate Theatre, York

Improv comedy is alive and well in York, with different formats available and troupes who perform with more or less regularity across the city. Tonight’s offering from Right Here, Right Now took on a decidedly Shakespearean theme, as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival running from 21st April to 3rd May.

The Bard’s Birthday Bash was only very loosely Shakespeare themed to be fair, with some games more tenuously linked than others, but that really didn’t matter. Living up to it’s website description, the Bash was funny, foolish, fit for family audiences, and it really did make it up as it went along. The concept was that the audience were to provide the ideas and the small but mighty band of improvisers would instantly turn them into chaotic comedy – each improvisor was given points at the end of every game, with the winner being able to wear a Macbeth style crown while having party poppers popped at them by the others – excellent fun.

Created by Paul Birch in 2011, this anarchic celebration of short-form improvisation plays regularly to packed houses. The audience for this Birthday Bash was small but perfectly formed so the five strong team didn’t have to wait long for the laughs to come, and they didn’t stop coming for the entirety of the first half. Seventy-something-year-olds sat alongside 14-year-olds giggling and guffawing at the very clever and equally quick silliness on display.

There was a variety of tried and tested improv games in use, from the very first, The Alphabet Game (where each line has to start with a consecutive letter of the alphabet) to the very last, the brilliant Highlander (running a scene again and again, more quickly every time, killing off one of the team in-between each run) and virtually all of them went down well.

The cast of five, plus compere, worked hard throughout with Birch taking the crown at the very end for his frankly excellent and consistent performing throughout the night. Clearly there were members of the team who were more and less experienced, which meant that on occasion scenes didn’t go anywhere or were over long, but such is the mixed bag of improv – some stuff works, some doesn’t and everyone has fun along the way.

While the first half was brilliant, and the second half just good, there was a real sense of warmth and a feeling by the end that the audience had just seen a couple of hours of really clever people saying very funny things. And that should happen a lot more in life.

Reviewed on 23rd April 2026