Wexner Center Residency Award World Premiere Improbable Panic

"One of the most energizing and provocative forces in British theatre."—The Guardian

The ever-innovative London ensemble Improbable debut their latest show at the conclusion of their second Wexner Center creative residency. For the group's many avid local fans, the intimate scale of the piece will recall such popular past productions as 70 Hill Lane and Spirit. Panic plumbs the charged themes of love, sex, and, of course, panic and features codirector Phelim McDermott onstage, surrounded by a supporting cast of women.

Here's how Improbable set the scene: "Come into the forest. Away from civilization. Where wild things are. Where nymphs bathe and play. Where Pan sleeps. Careful not to wake him, he is the bringer of Panic. The Great God Pan: goat horns, goat's legs, goatee beard, and goaty penis, chasing his nymphs. But Pan is dead. Since AD 33 so the story goes. The only god to die in our time. So that can't be him you saw through the window of a South London flat or running after a mugger near Brick Lane or sporting a cowboy hat in a bar here in Columbus. Because the Great God Pan is dead. Or is he? Drawn from personal stories and current obsessions, Panic is Improbable with brown paper and projections, a lot of self-help books, and some very chaseable nymphs."

Members! See Panic on Friday, March 6, and stay after the show for a reception with Improbable and the cast.

Attending this event? Let your friends know and RSVP on Facebook.

Panic is intended for mature audiences.

Keep reading for more about Improbable about their experiences at the Wexner Center. Popular and frequent performers at the Wexner Center, Improbable also received Wexner Center Residency Award support in 2002–03 and 2003–04 for The Hanging Man. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving 2007, Julian Crouch, Phelim McDermott, and Lee Simpson of Improbable again spent time at the center in the first of two creative residencies to develop their new production Panic (the second residency takes place prior to the show's premiere at the Wexner Center in March 2009). That sojourn came in the midst of a very busy schedule that also included preparations for directing and designing a new Broadway musical based on the cartoons and characters of the Addams Family (set to open in 2009), as well as projects in the works for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The three codirectors of Improbable used their time at the center to begin the development process for Panic.

Here’s what Improbable had to say about Panic when the show was just a glimmer in their eyes:

"We've made some bigger shows in recent years. It's been great. But we all agreed it was time to get personal again. Time to get back into a more intimate space. Time to put ourselves back onto the stage. Time to head back to Columbus. In so many of our shows, spending time at the Wexner Center has been vitally important. We arrive with some random thoughts and enter the center where we mull, ruminate, cogitate, and daydream. We usually emerge with thoughts equally, if not more, random than when we arrived, but also with the feeling that there may be some connections, maybe even a show in there somewhere. Maybe. The random thoughts we're bringing to Columbus this time? The Great God Pan, Michael Chekhov, bees, middle age, and brown paper."