Montreal improv actors coming to Nunavut’s capital

Joanie Maheu and David Marineau-Plante perform during a recent improvisational comedy match at the Francophone Centre in Iqaluit. Three of Canada’s best improv comedians will share their skills with Iqalungmiut, Feb. 20 and Feb. 21. (PHOTO COURTESY GABRIEL MONTREUIL-MOREAU)

Iqaluit’s French-language theatre company, Théatre Uiviit, is opening the door a little wider on a unique theatrical spectacle popular in the francophone community.

The stage looks fit for a floor hockey game complete with players, six aside, dressed in jerseys.

The action, once it starts, is not a quick series of passes and breakaways but an equally fast game of character generation and comical storylines made up on the spot.

The game is a cross between theatre and sport – it’s an improvisational comedy match.

“There’s nothing comparable to it in English, I think,” nor in Inuktitut, says Yoan Barriault. At least, not in Nunavut.

Barriault , who is director of Théatre Uiviit, organizes and is a performer of improv comedy matches in Iqaluit which his theatre company hosts monthly at the Francophone Centre.

He hopes to broaden the appeal of the game for all Iqalungmiut, as well as grow the improv skills of Iqaluit’s francophone actors, by bringing in three of Quebec’s top National Improvisation League performers Feb. 20 to Feb. 23 for a live show and a series of workshops.

Based in Montreal, the “LNI,” as it’s known, in the first and longest-running improv comedy league in the country.

Iqaluit once had its own improv comedy league.

“We were really interested just in having improv to provide some entertainment – basically for adults in the community,” Barriault said, recalling its beginnings in Iqaluit, in 2008.

Uiviit revived improv comedy shows last year, and opened them up to allow children in the audience, and teenagers among the teams.

Unlike conventional comedy performances, improv matches rely on audience participation. For each round of play, a referee assigns each team a random topic. The actors have 30 seconds to decide how to play a scene based on the subject.

After each team plays out their scene, the audience votes on the best performance – and the winning team earns a point. Play continues for three periods, as it does in hockey.

“The referee is a player in the game, and is responsible for creating the ambiance, by giving penalties, and pulling back the players,” Barriault said. “Everybody plays together.”

“It’s a competition between two teams, but in the end, it’s really a cooperative game,” he said. “And that’s what makes it so appealing.”

Conventional comedy performances follow a set scenario or routine, with just enough improvisation so that “not every performance is the same,” said Barriault.

Comedy matches are improvised from start to finish.

“You never know what will happen, so each night of improv is completely different from the next.”

The genre began in Montreal in 1977 when two professional actors created an improvisational league which eventually became the “Ligue Nationale d’Improvisation,” or LNI. The idea has since caught on in other French-speaking countries, including France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

Théatre Uiviit will host three of the LNI’s stars from Montreal — Frédéric Barbusci, Joelle Paré Beaulieu and Amélie Geoffroy — who will give a series of French workshops on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21.

The first workshop Feb. 20, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Francophone Centre, will teach fundamentals. The second one will offer advanced instruction on refereeing, singing, and “building a story,” Barriault said.

The highlight of the improv weekend will be a full show, Feb. 21, which will feature a mix of Iqaluit’s best players, including professional LNI members on each side as player-coaches.

“I’m sure they will help a lot on the bench, or during the caucuses,” Barriault said of the visiting performers.

“They don’t want to steal the show, but I’m sure at certain moments they will go on the ‘ice,’ to show what they’re capable of.”

Théatre Uiviit’s comedy show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 at the Francophone Centre, building 981. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. for a pizza dinner fundraiser by the theatre company. Admission is $10, and $5 for members of Théatre Uiviit. Entry is free for kids under 12.

See Théatre Uiviit’s Facebook group for information.