iO Theater-Improvised Shakespeare Company ARTIST ID: 15973

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For over five years, The Improvised Shakespeare Company has been astounding Chicago audiences at the legendary iO Theater & we just can't keep this critically acclaimed smash hit a secret any longer. Watch in utter amazement as the gifted cast of improvisers creates a two-act play using the style, language and themes of the immortal Bard, William Shakespeare.

Based on one audience suggestion (a title for a play that has yet to be written) The Improvised Shakespeare Co. creates a fully improvised play in Elizabethan style. Each of the players has brushed up on his "thee's" and "thou's" to bring you an evening of off-the-cuff comedy. Any show could be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword-play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults, persons in disguise and all that we've come to expect from the pen of the Great Bard. The night could reveal a tragedy, comedy, or history. Nothing is planned-out. Each play is completely improvised, so each play is entirely new!

After twenty-five years of providing Chicago with groundbreaking, star-making, world class improvisational comedy, the legendary iO Theater is hitting the road! The birthplace of long-form improvisation is now booking multiple shows, from Improvised Shakespeare to scripted musicals. Our alumni include Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Vince Vaughn, Amy Poehler, Neil Flynn, Adam McKay, Rachel Dratch and many more.

"One of the funniest, most amazing things I've ever seen!" Charleston City Paper

"This is pop Shakespeare to be sure...The modern tribute to the Bard mixes Shakespearean language and tone with heaping tablespoons of Monty Python-esque slapstick and wordplay. ...this is indisputably great improv, fueled by smart plot development, stage chemistry and recognizable characters." Centerstage Chicago

CRITIC'S CHOICE! "Their experience doing Shakespeare flowers in the language: they relish iambic dialog, execute perfectly timed asides, occasionally utter rhyming couplets, and drop prodic phrases, and well-placed anachronisms. Even the ending echoed the real plays: story lines resolved tidily - and uproariously." The Chicago Reader

"a delightful evening that celebrates the best of both iambics and long-form improv" The Chicago Tribune

"Stop me if thou hast heard this before." William Shakespeare Bard

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