It is what can reasonably be called a fairly significant term for the Oxford Imps. Between their weekly shows at the Wheatsheaf, the ambitious improvised murder mystery musical that the troupe currently has in development, and the tenth anniversary variety show at Oxford’s New Theatre on Thursday 13^th February, we’ll be seeing a lot of these people.

The Anniversary show is, by any measure, an ambitious undertaking. A troupe that’s generally to be found performing above a pub will soon find itself in one of Oxford’s most prestigious venues, demonstrating their skill to a wider audience as well as hosting professional and critically acclaimed acts from TV and radio. No pressure, then…

Of course, the Imps have nothing to fear. Veterans of the Edinburgh Fringe for the past decade, and with a roster consisting of old hands and fresh blood introduced every year, the Imps have made a serious name for themselves. They started performing in January 2004, when improvised comedy was in the doldrums in Britain.

Their reputation has soared since then, and rightly so – to see the Imps in action is to be astonished by the quicksilver nature of their comedy. The speed at which the performers can construct a narrative and react to suggestions while keeping the material light and funny is amazing to behold. I was fortunate enough to see the Imps in a rehearsal workshop, and the scope of their improvisation was breathtaking- the same premise practised twice resulted in two utterly different routines, both exceedingly funny even at an early stage in development.

Of course, the Imps are not the only attraction for the show. Acclaimed names Morgan and West, Rachel Parris and Ivo Graham having been drafted in to provide variety for the Imps’ big celebration.

It is in the very nature of an anniversary celebration to look back on what has gone before, and to take stock on where you find yourself. In the case of the Imps, however, their anniversary celebrations are a motivation to push their act to further heights.

The tenth anniversary show is not simply an excuse for the Imps to pat themselves on the back- this term’s work is an expression of confidence and ambition in equal measure, and leaves little doubt that this is a group of artists that are very much in a state of creative and artistic ascension. Ten years is only the beginning.

14.01 Greg and Tommy sign books and DVDs while posing for photographs. That’s all from me, back to Cherwell HQ

13.56 Wiseau is asked to do a live rendition of “You’re Tearing Me Apart”:

13.49 Wiseau offers his view on Hollywood. “Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, Internet Hollywood”. He associates himself with Old Hollywood. 

13.47 It’s revealed! He didn’t import Korean leather jackets, he designed them. That’s how he made the $6 million dollars for the movie. 

13.47 “Don’t believe what you read”

13.42 Apparently one of the characters “ended up retarded a little bit” at the end of the film. Okay. 

13.41 James Franco has just bought the rights to Greg’s book. Tommy thinks Johnny Depp should play his character in the movie. 

13.41 Regarding the flowers: “Red is symbol, of life”

13.39 How to live to 200? “Execise everyday, stretching… I believe in balance, don’t go overboard… sometimes you have to maybe compense a little bit, but it’s up to you”

13.38 What are his thoughts on religion? He has a new thing of blessing people on stage, but not religious. He has his “own religion”, which he whispers into an audience member’s ear. Sounds like Scientology. Tommy lectures on respecting different faiths. 

“I heard that you guys have the biggest library”

13.37 Tommy is “filling in” a Medicine student on cancer. Apparently we can “live two hundred years” thanks to the internet. Makes sense if you think about it. Better not to think about it too much. 

13.36 Why have you decided to be elusive? “Who, me?… I am who I am” – Tommy refuses to expand on his past.

13.35 There’s lots of Lisas and Marks and Johnnys in Oxford according to Tommy. Brace yourselves. 

13.34 “I’ll be honest with you because I know you” Tommy already knows one of the audience members. Lots of nervous answers. 

13.31 He’s cutting a lot of long stories short and I don’t get any of them. 

13.28 What movie would he have wanted to produce? He’s working on a sitcom called “The Neighbours” and a film called “Foreclosure”. He’s also working on a Vampire movie. I don’t think he understood the question.

“The fact is that, you know, I grew up on a stage, I know the stage, it’s my house.”

“Two is better than three, three is crowd”

“See the football? That’s our football”

13.27 Orson Welles and Hitchock are is main inspirations. “I consider myself of the same level”

13.25 Any advice for budding cinematographers: “Think about 20% before hundred.” It’s all about building a pyramid, apparently. 

13.24 Question about the scene where they both shave and the camera zooms in as they wear Tuxedos. There’s two messages to this apparently: “When you shave, wherever you shave, you get younger.” Regarding the Tuxedo: “I’m old school, new school”. “Why not play football in Tuxedos?”

12.23 “I’m very keen to understand people”

13.22 “Do you know the expression ‘Oranges… Lemon’?” No Tommy, no we don’t

13.21 “Let me stop you there” … “It’s not really about the cult, it’s a story of friendship and a surreal story of the American dream” they both answer to the accusation of The Best Worst Movie Ever

13.19 “Tommy’s like ‘no, you do it my way’… taking chaos and making it exciting and entertaining”

13.17 “Education is a key to succaaas”

13.05 HE’S HERE. Looks hungover. Dark glasses. Probably recently dyed his hair too. 

13.00 The Union President has “intercepted” Mr Wiseau on the Oxford High Street, according to inside sources. 

12.58 Excellent chat on modes of transport in the Gladstone room. 

12.57 A drinks truck has stopped outside the Union entrance. Is this a stunt???!!!

12.55 More great quotes from the film: “This is a great party, you invited all my friends, good thinking.” It has a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. ‘Nuff said. 

12.54 “You’re Tearing me Apart Lisa”

12.53 “Oh hi Tommy” – he’s on his way!

12.52 One of my favourite quotes from the film: “They betrayed me, they tricked me, and I don’t care anymore.” 

12.50 The University of New Brunswick (I know) have a “Tommy Wiseau Appreciation Society” http://www.unbsu.ca/dir/tommy-wiseau-appreciation-society/

12.49 We’ve been moved to the more comfy Gladstone room now. Hopes for an interview with the man himself are beginning to wane as kickoff time approaches. 

12.41 The budget for The Room is estimated to be around $6 million. No-one knows where Wiseau got the money. Something about leather jackets apparently. 

12.40 Rumour has it that he was always 3 hours late to shooting The Room. Hopefully he’s changed his habits. 

12.38 He’s Late. YOU’RE TEARING ME APART TOMMY

12.31 Joe Miles seems excited. Maybe he’ll be cast in The Room 2

12.20 Worst film ever made or comedy genius? Self-parody or epic failure?Or perhaps the object of a large-scale bullying project? With over 3 million views on his videos on Youtube, and an ever growing fan base, Tommy Wiseau visits the Oxford Union this afternoon to answer questions from his Oxford cult fans. 

Let’s remember some of his finest moments. 

“Oh Hi Mark” 

Hypnotist Theatre’s production of The Pitchfork Disney opens on a dimly lit den of childish squalor. Sweet wrappers litter the floor and every surface as twins Presley (Jonathan Purkiss) and Haley (Zoe Bullock) sit in the place they have carved out for themselves away from the rest of the world, their rustling of wrappers filling the theatre with a sense of unease which pervades the entire performance.

Georgia Luscombe’s set is bloated with subtle references and allusions which we pick up as the play progresses; a sheet painted with the words “Left us Lost us” hangs behind the stage, referring to the mysterious absence of the twins’ beloved parents, whilst a line of chocolates on the top of the flickering TV set becomes a source of focus for, and representation of, Presley’s increasingly desperate need for the control which he lacks over his own life, dreams and desires.

The relationship between Bullock and Purkiss is explored dynamically in the first hour, with conversation ranging in content and tone from petty argument to gothic fantasy; the turbulence of their dialogue reflected in impressive physical performances from Bullock in particular, whose fantastically pastiche-gothic description of her last trip outside the house makes for the most captivating monologue in a play full of them as she charismatically acts out her fantasy across the set. Purkiss is convincingly conflicted as Presley; at once tender and protective towards his sister whilst frustrated and aggressive towards her manic behaviour.

The entry of Cosmo Disney (Nick Finerty) into the play, however, ramps up the tensions of the first hour and draws the themes that were once implicit out into the dialogue between him and Presley. Cosmo is at once pristine and grotesque; hating to be touched, with a clean white shirt, bow-tie and sequinned jacket, he exudes the confidence and control which Presley lacks. Finerty’s performance injects a new energy into the play, and his portrayal of Cosmo treads a line somewhere between captivating and repulsive that makes his character appropriately ambiguous and threatening right up until the play’s climax.

Finally, the arrival of Pitchfork (Keiran Ahern) consolidates the growing sense of threat and unease that the production creates, and Ahern’s performance, though all but silent, epitomises the contrast of childishness and grotesqueness with his costume identical to Cosmo’s save his face, which is hidden beneath a studded gimp mask. This theme of the grotesque is one that director Sam Ward focuses on in the production, with actors talking through mouths full of chocolate, sucking on children’s dummies, eating cockroaches and vomiting.

The set adds to this, appearing claustrophobic, hot and dirty and indeed the actors do well to linger on the uncomfortably unpleasant sections of the script, Purkiss in particular, whose portrayal of repressed homosexuality is as uncomfortable as it is convincing. However, at times, the rich script goes to waste in a production that becomes increasingly static as it progresses, and moments that could be a high point for these thematic concerns of repressed desire, the allure of the grotesque and dark fantasising, such as Presley’s fifteen minute account of his recurring nightmare, are acted out with almost no accompanying movement or significant variation in tone or volume.

As a result, the play loses pace in its latter stages, and thus the dynamic so successfully explored between Presley and Haley is never quite reached with Presley and Cosmo. Nonetheless, the production is slick, captivating and impressively disturbing, with a particularly outstanding performance from Purkiss and a rich, professional set.

There is perhaps a thing of getting too cosy in the BT. When your coat is brushing the arm of the acoustic guitarist, as he manfully tries to ignore you scribbling away and openly judging his show, things have possibly got beyond the “intimate” setting of theatre-in-the-round, and into the realms of awkward. And sitting so close to a miked-up three-man band – surely I won’t here the singers?  I thought, as I tried not to thwack the music stand by flinging open my notebook too enthusiastically.

I need not have worried. The haunting a capella voice of Ellen Timothy, who plays the narrator in this surprisingly thought-provoking musical, soon rose above the transfixed audience. The music was always going to be great – In Her Eyes was written by the very same Toby Huelin of Theory of Justice success, but what I hadn’t counted on was an added depth and sensitivity of this second work of art. Without giving too much away, what describes itself as a “dark musical without the jazz hands”, is more like an opera that soars and plunges between euphoric ballads, catchy tunes, and aggressively clashing melodies.

The all-female seven-strong cast were a highly talented bunch, whose powerful voices brought a depth to their multi-part harmonies. The mysterious figure of “Jamie”, the inexplicably destructive boyfriend of the protagonist Freddie (Rachel Coll), never appears on stage. Apparently he’s on the other end of the phone, or just behind the audience, but never is the threatening phantom figure allowed to trespass into the arena of our vision.

It was also easy to forget the fact that these Oxford students were all about my age; the five “teenage” actresses transformed into delightfully bitchy, flouncy and awkward beings of school-age, without ever dipping a toe into the waters of stereotype. By stroke of luck or genius, the four “popular” girls are played by four fairly petite actresses, so that the already isolated Freddie towers elegant but out of place above them. Particular mention should go to Sasha, (Sarah Mansfield), who storms around small and shiny and smiling with the rest of her friends, but whose character also wrestles with believable guilt about the group’s behaviour towards Freddie.

Following the rise and fall of a tragedy, this musical builds to a mingling interweaving climax of harmonies between chorus, mother, narrator and protagonist, and then ends in the only prolonged speech of the play, and a blackout. The moments of stunned silence before the applause were concrete proof of the success of the evening. I even managed not to knock the guitarist’s music stand over. 

When Nir Paldi did his military service in the Israel Defence Forces, he was not your average soldier. The young Israeli spent his three years in uniform teaching theatre in underprivileged communities and putting on musicals such as “Hair”. This type of contrast is exactly what characterises his latest theatrical endeavour, “Ballad of the Burning Star”, which broaches topics like the Holocaust and the Intifadas through the medium of cross-dressing and cabaret.

The “Theatre Ad Infinitum” is a multi-award winning theatre company, led by Nir Paldi, George Mann and Amy Nostbakken. It first rocketed to fame in 2008 at the Edinburgh Festival with its show ‘Behind the Mirror’ about the bizarre love affair between a woman, a man and the man’s reflection in the mirror. All of the company’s 80-minute productions are innovative in both style and content, but “Ballad of the Burning Star” seems to be the most ambitious venture yet.

When I ask Nir to give a short description of the show, he replies: ‘It is complicated to explain, but it’s really not very complicated as a piece of art, it’s very accessible.’ He describes it as a ‘story of an Israeli boy who goes through a lot of typical Israeli experiences – the whole background of the Holocaust, losing members of his family to terror attacks. During his involvement in the military he commits a crime and changes from a victim to an executioner in a very typical manner.’

Nir says that the story is semi-autobiographical. Born in Jerusalem – Israel’s historical and religious capital  – Nir spent his childhood living in the disputed Palestinian territories, before moving to Tel Aviv as a teenager, and then to Paris. His experience in Paris was ‘very important for the creation of the piece’: ‘when you grow up in Israel as a Jew, you’re very mainstream and you don’t necessarily feel Jewish. But when I moved abroad I was suddenly ‘the Jewish guy’. It added to my feeling of confusion about who I was in terms of my national identity.’

As the Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the highly divisive issues of our time, any form of entertainment that deals with it is instantly controversial. But Nir explains that he tries to avoid the political debate by focusing ‘on the human story, a very complex human story’.

One of Nir’s main goals with the show – and perhaps the most complicated – is ‘to relate both sides’. He seems to have achieved this: he recounts how ‘after one show I got two people approaching me. One said – ‘this is so pro-Palestinian, you’re completely one-sided’ and the other said – ‘this is pro-Israeli, you’re completely one-sided’. With this kind of show it is very difficult to say. With the reality, too, it is very difficult to say.’

In discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict Nir conveys both resignation about its deeply complicated nature and hope of being able to soften people’s normally one-sided view of it. ‘People have so little hope and are so cynical about everything. Believing that there might be peace one day is radical. They look at you as if to say ‘Grow the fuck up’. But I think the show is hopeful in that it fosters dialogue. It makes people talk, so even if they disagree with the piece or they feel angry about it, it causes there to be dialogue. That was my intention – to create a discussion, build bridges between people and make them see that the other side is not just the ‘enemy’, but also a person, a human being.”

When I ask him why he decided to present a narrative – which he himself describes as having some very ‘hard-core themes’ – in such a seemingly light-hearted way, he gives a whole host of different reasons. Nir (who both conceived the idea of the show and plays the drag queen protagonist) explains that he chose to present it in this way in order to simultaneously generate a sense of distance and directness.

 ‘One of the main reasons that I decided to present the show through cabaret and drag was to create a bit of distance. The reality in Israel and Palestine is violent and aggressive. So although the story is very human and very emotive, I thought that the nature of the piece’s subject matter required some kind of distancing between the performers and the audience.’

‘Being a man in drag gives you the freedom to say whatever it is you want to say, to be very direct and rude and flamboyant. I chose cabaret because of its ability to involve the audience – to bring them into the story and then in some way betray them and play with them.’

Will his next show be in the same vein as “The Ballad of the Burning Star”?   Nir assures me that the next show by “Theatre ad Infinitum” will certainly be ‘very very different’: it will deal with the Edward Snowden revelations, and will be ready for the Edinburgh Festival.

But he states that he, as an artist, outside of the company, ‘will always deal with this topic’. ‘Israel is a part of me, emotionally and intellectually. Some people take a very strong one-sided approach, but I feel like I can’t. I can’t escape the complexity. And that’s very painful.’ 

At the preview for this production of the Arthurian and chivalric epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, director Jonny Sell insisted his work was “simple”. However, I soon discovered that this unusual combination of puppets, medieval costume and singing all in one was, in fact, anything but.

As an ardent medievalist, I was especially excited about this production, but worried that it might be too niche. However, Sellin’s creativity and enthusiasm promise to alleviate these worries. The production features hand-made puppets, which were still in progress when I saw them, but they should cut an impressive presence in the O’Reilly theatre. The dominant green head of the eponymous ‘Green Knight’ is particularly impressive and ‘Tarquin’ – as the cast have named him – the wild boar should add to the natural, yet dramatic, aesthetic Sellin is aiming for. The staging of the production promises to be a star in itself; with a roof of sticks to emulate a glade and lighting to capture the sense of journey and quest integral to this chivalric epic.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is difficult to define, as Sellin explained to me; however the cast seem to have come to grips with their epic, mythical characters.  Duncan Cornish embodies the naivety necessary for the chivalric hero of the story. Jack Noutch’s King Arthur is especially striking; he captures the multifaceted nature of Arthur’s character of a veneer of authority mixed with his complex personal relationship with his wife, Guinevere, with great skill. James Mooney’s Merlin is perhaps the star performance; his manipulation of voice and body-language is impressive, capturing the ethereal and mysterious nature of the wizard with great poise. The female roles were underplayed in the preview; however Sellin’s explanation of Morgan le Fey haunting the erstwhile Sir Gawain, should make the production especially dramatic.

The complexity of the staging and the characters makes this production a mammoth task for all the cast and crew. I worry it is overambitious but if everything comes together it should be a multi-layered and unmissable production.