The Pajama Men & THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG Cast Join 50-Hour Improvathon Lineup

Acclaimed American improv stars The Pajama Men are the latest big name signings to be anounced for the eighth annual 50-Hour Improvathon, this coming weekend in London.

The Pajama Men - Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez - hailed by The Guardian this week as the biggest influence on an entire generation of improv and comedy acts, will help get the event off to a stunning start on Friday evening at the LOST Theatre..

Others now confirmed include:

• Members of the Best Comedy Olivier Award-winning West End show, The Play That Goes Wrong, including Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, Bryony Corrigan and Nancy Wallanger.
• Members of The Comedy Store Players and Paul Merton's Impro Chums - Lee Simpson plus others
• Cariad Lloyd (Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Newcomer nominee and star of her own show for BBC3 - The Cariad Show)
• Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy in Game Of Throne)
• Dan Starkey (plays long-running character Strax in BBC1s Doctor Who and recently made an appearance on University Challenge)
• Ruth Bratt (seen in Ricky Gervais' Derek (Channel 4); BBC's Mongrels: Vic Reeves' Ministry Of Curious Stuff and BBC3's People Just Do Nothing)
• Mark Meer (Canadian Screen Award nominee and Canadian Comedy Award winner, known worldwide as the voice of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect trilogy. A veteran of over 25 improvathons!)
• Paul Foxcroft
• Members of Showstopper and Austentatious
• RSC actors Alan Cox, Joseph Chance and Oliver Senton
• London Cabaret Award Winner Sarah Louise Young

Welcome to Tinseltown! Where Sleepless Studios are celebrating 100 years in the movie business...

This year, the eighth annual 50-Hour Improvathon, being staged at the LOST Theatre from 7.00pm on Friday 29 May and finishing 9.00pm on Sunday 31 May, is an hilarious homage to all things Hollywood, featuring leading improvisers from the UK and overseas, playing a range of lovable and eccentric characters in modern-day Los Angeles. Screen sirens, budding starlets, struggling writers, crazed directors, big-shot producers... it takes all sorts to make the most successful movie studio in the world!

'This year's setting is a celebration of all the movies we know and love - with a dose of red-carpet Hollywood glamour,' promises the event's director, Adam Meggido.

A core group of around 20 actors will play the whole 50 hours, going without sleep, with guest performers dropping in from time to time. There will be a band throughout and all night bar! Come for an episode, or a few, or stay for the whole thing! As the performers become increasingly sleep-deprived they lose the ability to censor themselves and an extraordinary new playing style emerges. Wild, unpredictable, funny and engaging, this is live theatre at its most exciting. It's like watching an entire DVD box-set of your favourite drama in one viewing. There is also a special 'Family Episode' (Sunday 11.00am-1.00pm) where the action is suitable for children.

Director Adam Meggido: Co-creator of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (BBC R4, three West End runs, seven sell-out Edinburgh Festivals, UK and international tours, West End Live, The Olivier Awards); The School Of Night (with Ken Campbell - Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and BBC Radio 3); currently world record holder for longest continuous direction of improvisation (55 hours, Toronto December 2013); also a writer, composer and director, his musical Burlesque won four Off West End Theatre Awards in 2012 including Best New Musical.

Originally created by award-winning Canadian troupe 'Die Nasty', the event was brought to London by maverick theatre genius Ken Campbell and since then has been produced by Adam Meggido and Extempore Theatre as an annual event at both Hoxton Hall and The Park Theatre.

To post a comment, you must register and login.