I went to the theatre the other week. For the first time in a long time. To see one of my nieces perform in “Shake It Up – The Improvised Shakespeare Show”.

It was excellent. If you get a chance to see it (they’re at the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh for the Fringe), do go.

In fact, go more than once, because then you’ll see how clever it is.

And you might see how this could apply to you running your business.

Before the show even starts, each member of the audience contributes a line of their own to the ‘script’. To be randomly introduced later.

Then, for each half of the show the audience chooses:

• The genre (tragedy, comedy, history)
• The location
• The name of the protagonist, and their fatal flaw.

And then the fun begins.

This seems like a daunting amount of variation, but it absolutely works, because:

A) Whatever the genre, it’s always Shakespeare – whose Promise of Value includes blank verse; rhyming couplets to end each scene; a stock of familiar plot lines (usurpation, loved ones lost and found, star-crossed lovers); standard twists (cross-dressing, mistaken identity, supernatural interventions); flowery language, and deep insights into the human condition.

B) Every player is familiar with the process of stringing these sub-processes together to create a coherent story arc.

C) They rehearse between runs, to make the core processes second nature, and explore new possibilities to stop their performances becoming stale.

The result is a lot of fun for the audience, and importantly, a lot of fun for the performers too.

Two new Shakespeare plays every night.

Without Shakespeare.

Discipline makes Daring possible.