Outside the Frame, Improbable
Channel: Telepresence Stage
Date: 2022-05-19

Improbable commenced their residency wanting to explore moving in and out of boxes, breaking down the barriers that separated them in their previous Zoom performance work. They sought to create a spacious open space to speak from and to identify and explore what they described as “the fun, the creativity, the outrageous, the intimate, the beautiful, the human, the theatrical, the unexpected and unlikely”. Reflecting on what was technically possible whilst maintaining their original dramaturgical approach, they refined their ideas towards a final 20-minute performance outcome, entitled Outside the Frame. It combined improvisations and scripted scenes with animated sequences and transitions, to create a world of shared autobiographical storytelling. Their scenographic techniques imaginatively juxtaposed digital settings with physical backgrounds, as well as using novel visual effects such as full-body live action sequences being framed by close-up shots of hands that create the scenes in real time by moving physical layers.