The Free Association
The Free Association, or The FA, is a London-based improvised comedy theatre and school. It was founded in 2015 and operates two comedy venues and training centres in London. They are currently the largest provider of improvisation training in the UK.
The FA teach, produce and host live improvisational comedy from "The Free Association Theatre" in East London, on the border of Haggerston and Islington, and "The FA's Comedy Room" in Camden in North London.
In October 2018, The Free Association announced a partnership with Boom Chicago, a creative group, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that writes and performs sketch and improvisational comedy at the Rozentheater. The partnership brings together Boom’s 25 years of improv history and the FA’s six-level curriculum with the aim to become Amsterdam’s premier location for improvisation training.
Philosophy
As the UK's equivalent to American improv theatres UCB, IO and The Second City, the FA has brought the American-style of improvised comedy to the United Kingdom and adapted it for a British audience.Playing with a flexible style between the "hard premise" of New York's UCB and the "organic" improv of Chicago's IO. The FA's main focus is the "game of the scene" and the "straight-man" - using these to create grounded comedic scenes.
FA house teams
The following are teams that play regularly at The Free Association, either at weekends or on the weekly Harold Night show. They comprise graduates of The Free Association training programme.| Team Name | Activity | Type | Members | Performance |
| Sweet FA | 2015 - Current | Weekend Team | Graham Dickson, Michael Orton-Toliver, Katia Kvinge, Briony Redman, Naomi Petersen, Liz Kingsman, Jim Archer, Rhys Collier | The Detour |
| The Wilsons | 2015 - Current | Weekend Team | Sophia Broido, Chris Gau, Shamus Maxwell, Mariam Haque, Katharine Bennett-Fox, Ian T Day, Shaun Lowthian, Jonathan Broke | Freeform, Flash Scenes Opening |
| The Cartel | 2015 - Current | Weekend Team | Alex Holland, Amanda Farley, Freya Slipper, Jez Scharf, Lola-Rose Maxwell, David Elms, Charlie Kemp, Kayleigh Llewellyn | Freeform |
| The 838 | 2016 - 2018 | Retired Harold Team | Tom Levinge, Simon Lukacs, Freddie Sandilands, Ivan Gonzalez, Shivani Thussu, Clare Plested, Alison Thea-Skot, Nathalie Antonia | The Harold |
| My Brother José | 2016 - 2018 | Retired Harold Team | Lorna Shaw, Scott Oswald, Tamar Broadbent, Alex Morris, Clare Couchman, Nick Everritt, Kerry Gilbert, Steve Violich | The Harold |
| Feast | 2017 - 2019 | Retired Harold Team | Amanda Stauffer, Becci Ride, Kat Bond, Max Dickins, Matthew Cosgrove, Patrick Dishman, Sophie Dickson, Theo McCabe | The Harold |
| Super Discount Party Store | 2017 - Current | House Team | Amy Annette, Clemence Billoud, Victoria Barry, Mathew Gundel, Ruairi McInerney, Nick Brown, Simon Feilder, Sasha Brown | Tacocat |
| Night Bus | 2018 - Current | House Team | Freddie Sandilands, Lorna Shaw, Alex Morris, Shivani Thussu, Scott Oswald, Flora Anderson, Nicholas Everritt, Bryony Byrne | Tacocat |
| The Millicent Tendrils Experience | 2018 - Current | Harold Team | Emma Pritchard, Lottie Field, Ambika Mod, Florence Mercer, Ishan Ganjoor, Luke Healy, Dom Ashton, Dan Kelly | The Harold |
| The Fortitude | 2018 - 2020 | Retired Harold Team | Nick Adamson, Simon Fazey, Rob Sladden, Deep Lidder, Liz Gutterbock, Jenny Donoghue, Kathryn Higgins, Victoria Beardwood | The Harold |
| Long Weekend | 2018 - 2020 | Retired Harold Team | Jay Bennett, Nick Elleray, Doug Crossley, Will Rowland, Liz Elms, Anna Carden, Dan Subin, Olivia Florence | The Harold |
| Supreme Leader | 2019 - Current | Harold Team | Alex Bradbury, Kathryn Higgins, Nick Adamson, Flora Donald, Waleed Akhtar, Anna Carden, Victoria Beardwood, Craig Methven | The Harold |
| Dream Phone | 2019 - Current | Harold Team | Kiran Benawra, Tom Levinge, Hayley McGee, George Collecott, Jenny Donoghue, Tara Boland, Jack Barry, Phillip Kostelecky | The Harold |
| I'm Filthy - Don't Touch Me | 2019 - Current | Harold Team | Laura Riseborough, Matt Hutson, Sammy Hannah, Jay Bennett, Doug Crosley, Will Rowland, Zoe Dunn, Jamal Khandar | The Harold |
Other shows
The theatre also hosts ensemble shows performed by players from the House Teams. These include Jacuzii, The Ladies of FA County and Uncle Glen's Menagerie. Guest residencies from other London-based acts such as Do Not Adjust Your Stage, The Petting Zoo and Sorry take place monthly . Jacuzii has played at The Pleasance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2015 to 2018.The Free Association performed a live version of Drunk History at Comedy Central LIVE, a three-day stand-up festival at Southampton’s Hoglands Park on 5, 6 and 7 October 2018, with special guests including, Joel Dommett, Nish Kumar and Iain Stirling.
Guest monologists
The Free Association's headline Saturday Night show Jacuzii, and other 'special guest' nights welcome a guest monologist who uses a suggestion from the audience to inspire a truthful, personal monologue. The improvisers then use the monologue as inspiration for a series of scenes, which in turn inspire a response from the monologist.The Free Association has performed with the following guest monologists and performers: Ralf Little, Nish Kumar, Oliver Chris, Tom Rosenthal, Phil Wang, Rachel Parris, Cariad Lloyd, Mae Martin, Steen Raskopoulos, Brett Goldstein, Rose Matafeo, Sindhu Vee, Matt Jones, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Neil Casey and Jason Mantzoukas.
Training programme
The FA training programme takes place over 6 levels and focuses on learning "The Harold", a form created by Del Close. The training is attended by performers, comedians, and individuals looking for extra confidence and a community.The Free Association provides improvisation training for businesses, focusing on communication and collaboration through "FA at Work".
Additional work
The Free Association's Michael Orton-Toliver and Chris Gau created the part-improvised "retro-scripted" comedy mockumentary Borderline for Channel 5 in 2016. The show features a number of Free Association-trained performers and was produced by The Royle Family's Ralf Little and directed by Breaking Bad's Matt Jones. Performers Ian Thomas Day, Chris Gau and Shaun Lowthian created the improvised character comedy podcast Fact Up in 2015, featuring guest performers from the theatre and actors, comedians and improvisers from outside The Free Association. Now running to over 150 episodes, the podcast featured on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Radio Hour in 2018, recommended by comedian Cariad Lloyd.Kayleigh Llewyllyn won two awards at the BAFTA Cymru Awards and was named as one of BAFTA's Breakthrough Brits in 2019.