Queen and Friend | Grimes Productions & Anywhere Festival

Presented by Grimes Productions as a part of the 2023 Anywhere Festival, Queen and Friend is a show made up entirely on the spot with two expert story weavers and improvisers at the forefront. The premise is simple: there are two actors playing several characters, and one of them has a terrible secret that’s revealed in a big twist at the end. The audience uses a polling app to vote on various aspects of the show - location, which character they want to delve deeper into the story of, and what terrible secret one of them is harbouring. It is playful, light-hearted and downright silly. There were endless hearty belly laughs as the audience watched the hilarity unfold in every which way.

Imogen Behan-Willett and Mark Grimes (supported by Ben Snaith on the tech) used nothing but their bodies and voices to craft a complex narrative involving a second-rate penguin hospital, an elderly zookeeper, Ethel, and her terrible secret that she is actually a horse with a taste for horse flesh (and human too, it seems). I was quite impressed that the artists were able to keep up the amusing charade for 50 minutes, and I only hoped it would be a little bit longer. I wasn’t finished being a fly on the wall yet!

I find improv absolutely fascinating; the way the artists can spontaneously whip up whole worlds in front of our eyes, pulling characters and plot out of seemingly nowhere with total conviction, all the while convincing us that this is what is really happening for them in their world.

As an audience member it felt special to be part of the collaborative creation of a show that has never been and never will be again. Never again will Ethel from Australia Zoo who is secretly a horse conspire with her horse husband to eat the groundsman Trevor, owner of the largest model train set this side of Beenleigh.

Now, this is definitely getting too deep into a show that really wasn’t meant to be that deep, but I interpreted it as a reminder to go with the flow, to keep things moving no matter what and not get tripped up on the small things along the way. Once or twice, the actors would get caught on a point, stuck on something they were trying to express, and it was so, so interesting to see how they climbed back out of those holes, or pushed each other further in. The rapport these two performers have is a real treat to watch. Even if one of them would have a momentary struggle, there was never a gap in the flow of the story as a whole as they switched between characters and carried us along with them through each unexpected twist and ridiculous turn of the journey.

There was great use of space throughout the whole room in front of, behind and amid us onlookers. With a complete lack of props, set or special effects, they crafted vivid worlds with just their voices and bodies, illustrating the different characters through changes in posture, voice and positioning. A real highlight, I have to say, was watching Imogen portray both the human-eating horse and human being eaten by the horse, both the consumer and the consumed, simultaneously. Bloody funny.

There’s a saying about how art comes into being only when it is observed; the act of observing is what brings the art into existence. That came to mind when thinking about the way this show panned out and how improvisational artists have to pick up on subtle energy and reactions of the audience and bounce off that, taking us on all the wild twists and turns that improv often does. To love improv, you’ve got to have a soft spot for the absurd, the downright silly, and the nonsensical and, boy, do I.

Queen and Friend have got one more show this Anywhere Festival on Wednesday 17 May (tickets here), so get down there for your recommended dose of cheerful absurdity.