Next up, three wonderfully talented players comprised the group known as Horse Aquarium (a tag which sounds a little like a Googlewhack and a lot like a great name). They collected three random words from the audience and then based a series of improvised sketches around each. It was remarkable to watch Paul Foxcroft, Briony Redman and Tom Salinsky play together, challenging and daring one another with each turn of the makeshift plot. Each is a superb and competent character comedian, finely portraying trigger-happy prison guards and the Angel Gabriel alike, among many others. Their most hilarious skit featured the men as taxi driver and passenger, with Redman portraying their seatbelt. “I was working in an office as a chair,” she says, wrapping her arms around the others, “but there’s a recession…”

The final group brought to life one of the best pieces of improv theatre available on the circuit. The School of Night began by reading passages from audience members’ books, before the volumes were taken from them and they had to continue, improvising in the same style. This was funny and a mere taster for what was to come. A wholly improvised Shakespeare parody, told in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets – all in Shakespearean English, of course. The Dwarf of Venice nodded to the Bard and Jacobean revenge tragedy dramatists, and was stuffed with just enough camp Carry On humour. It was an immense achievement, to see the players make up lines on the spot that drove the plot forward and sounded like they had been lifted from the Collected Works. The late founder of this troupe once said, “I don’t understand the worship of writers in this country, since none of them are much good.” When you see these players make up dazzling theatre without a script, it does make you wonder whether writers will one day go out of fashion. Readers of Notes from the Underground may not be comfortable hearing it, but the School of Night puts writers out of work. Fortunately, there are so few performers as talented as the School of Night players, so writers are probably safe for now.

We can only hope that the Old Vic Tunnels are also safe. The licence granted by Lambeth Council gives the Old Vic chance to use the space only until December, but hopefully there will be a reprise or – let’s hope – leave to remain indefinitely. The venue could become a significant player on the fringe scene. Persuading Lambeth Council to let them use these enormous tunnels underneath Waterloo was probably an audacious project itself, but then to transform them into an exciting space for theatre, comedy and improv is a major achievement. Stay tuned for what comes between now and December.

by Adam Smith