An exploration of life, loss and a single question: Where does true inspiration come from? This new collaboration between Philip Glass and Phelim McDermott marries ten meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom with ten brand new pieces of music.
Future Sounds
A new three-year programme of opera and music theatre work. From the stories we tell to the process used to tell them, join Improbable in creating music and opera that is in - and of - the moment.
Time for Respair
We invite you to gather online to dream about and design the kind of sector that could emerge from this pandemic. We want to create conversations that acknowledge the loss and the grief that many of us are feeling and support those who need supporting. Conversations that look beyond the short-term crisis, and which also support new, better ways of working.
Our show archive
Past Productions
70 Hill Lane
Based on a true and haunting childhood experience
Aida
Aida must choose between the man she loves and the homeland she longs for. Betrayal is the only option.
Akhnaten at Met Opera
Philip Glass's mesmerising opera about the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh and forms the last of Philip Glass’s trilogy of ‘portrait’ operas
Animo
The bastard child of puppetry and improvisation
BambinO
An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds.
Beauty and the Beast
A very adult fairy-tale
Cinderella
A child lived in the ashes...
Coma
Stories from the edge of life
Così Fan Tutte
Mozart's final comic masterpiece set in a Coney Island fairground
Devoted & Disgruntled 15
Join us for our 15th annual unconventional convention for everyone who loves, makes and lives theatre and the performing arts. (Link opens in Devoted & Disgruntled website.)
Global Improvisation Initiative 2019
A global gathering of improvisers, artists, educators, scholars and activists promoting the evolution and advancement of improvisation. Co-hosted by the iii! and Middlesex University.
Impro For All
St John's Wood Library and Improbable present a double bill performance
Improvisation workshop with Guy Dartnell and Alex Murdoch
This workshop is for performers who are curious about live improvisation, whether you're interested in doing improvisation as part of a theatre practice or using these skills in other areas of performance.
Improvisation Workshop with Guy Dartnell and Alex Murdoch
This 4-day workshop is for performers who are curious about live improvisation, whether you're interested in doing improvisation as part of a theatre practice or using these skills in other areas of performance.
Lifegame
Part chat show, part impro show
Lost Without Words
Imagine older actors in their 70s and 80s, actors who have spent their lives bringing life to other people's words. Imagine they were on stage with nothing but themselves and no words but their own.
No Idea
Two women. One show. No ideas
Opening Skinner's Box
A rollercoaster ride through ten fascinating psychological experiments
Book now
Panic
Love. Sex. Panic
Permission Improbable
What would a female-grown improvisational culture look like?
Satyagraha
Improbable's landmark opera production of Philip Glass's portrait of Mahatma Gandhi
Satyagraha at LA Opera
Philip Glass' Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) is inspired by Gandhi’s early years in South Africa - a powerful meditation on the lasting effects of human goodness. Limited 6 performance run at LA Opera.
Spirit
Three performers struggling to tell the story of three brothers
Stars Are Out Tonight
A trip into space, created in collaboration with AMICI Dance Theatre Company
Sticky
An outdoor extravaganza of fireworks and sticky tape
Still No Idea
Sometimes no matter how hard we try, we still have absolutely no idea.
The Bear
The story of an everyday murder and a mythic bear
The Devil and Mister Punch
A tragic comedy of manslaughter and love
The Eldership Project
What is the role of the Elder in the 21st century?
The Hanging Man
The story of an architect who hangs himself in the skeleton of his unfinished cathedral
The Little Match Girl
A new production of avantgarde composer Helmut Lachenmann's extraordinary opera
The Paper Man
What do we do when fascism comes to town? In a paper world of light and shadow, violence and dance, five performers work together on what sets them apart.
The Perfect American
The final years of Walt Disney's life, set against the wonderful music of Philip Glass
The Pirate Project
Stories of swashbuckling female pirates of the past combined with intimate moments of personal piracy today
The Still
What happens when practitioners from outside theatre meet with Improbable improvisers onstage?
The Tempest
A magical production of Shakespeare's play
The Wolves in the Walls
If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over
Theatre Of Blood
A stage adaptation of the stylish 70s horror movie about an actor who takes bloody revenge for a lifetime of bad reviews
Through the Door
A series of improvisation workshops for women & non-binary folk, exploring impro in theatre, comedy, storytelling, devising, making and writing.
Winter Mentoring Fête 2017
The Winter Mentoring Fete is a fantastic opportunity to pick the brains of companies who have been there, done that, got it wrong, (sometimes) got it right, and learned a lot along the way.
Winter Mentoring Fête 2018
The Winter Mentoring Fête is a fantastic opportunity to pick the brains of theatre companies who have been there, done that, got it wrong, (sometimes) got it right, and learned a lot along the way.
Workshop with Lee Simpson: Improvisation for Stage and Page
In this five-day workshop, Co-Artistic Director Lee Simpson looks at how Improbable brings the philosophy and practice of improvisation to performance improv, devised theatre, plays, operas and social activism.