The Blind Date Project

A woman waits at a bar – it's TV star Bojana Novakovic, but for our purposes she's anonymous. A man enters—unknown to her or the audience—and announces that he's her blind date. Around them, the audience become eavesdroppers on their awkward first meeting. Will they find true love, or barely enough conversation to survive an hour?

That's the setup for this unusual variant on improvised comedy. It removes the typical crutch of well-rehearsed improv groups: having never met, the pair have no way to pre-plan a safe fall-back formula. Interventions come not from audience suggestions but text messages from director Scott Rodgers. This is less successful: hiding the instructions from the audience also removes the joy and complicity of watching improvisers respond in the moment. But there's plenty to enjoy, with several standout comic moments coming from surly barmaid Margaux Susi, on hand to keep things moving when conversation dries.

Sadly, as they move from awkward pleasantries through vodka shots to drunken confessions, the improvisers rely heavily on rom-com stereotypes and dating clichés to accelerate the narrative. At the denouement, he finally declares he's only really here “to get laid”. She weeps that all she really wants is a "man to look after her”. We're an hour in, but the gender politics have travelled back a generation. It's a shame, because the setup could otherwise provide a fun, freewheeling exploration of post-Tinder dating dynamics. Then again, this is improv – maybe tomorrow's audience will have better luck.