This Is Your Life . . . Well, Not Quite

As a student at Manchester University, Richard Lowe appeared in a handful of Gilbert & Sullivan productions. But until he volunteered for “Lifegame” at the La Jolla Playhouse, the 32-year-old biotech chemist had never been the subject of a play.

The premise of this series of improvisational evenings--based on the work of Keith Johnstone, founder of the noted improv group Theatre Machine--is that every life is worthy of examination. The more ordinary a person’s story, the more the audience can identify with him or her.

During the show, Lowe would be interviewed onstage by a member of the London-based Improbable Theatre. He’d talk about his antipathy for his older brother, his bond with his elegant, ailing mother, the lack of romantic attachments in his life. Then the troupe would dramatize his story, zeroing in on certain scenes.

“It’s not ego, but curiosity--and a sense of adventure--that motivated me to do this,” said Lowe, a transplanted Englishman who sipped a gin and tonic before the event to keep any second thoughts at bay.

After touring England off and on for two years to generally positive reviews, “Lifegame” is making its U.S. premiere at the Mandell Weiss Forum on the UC San Diego campus through July 9 before a possible off-Broadway run in the fall.

“The guest--a different one each night--tries to remember ‘how it was,’ and we see how close we can get it,” says Julian Crouch, who, with Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, founded Improbable Theatre in 1996. “It’s not unlike a dinner party. Sometimes people are joking and giddy, and sometimes the conversation turns serious.”

The Guardian called “Lifegame” a “cross between a therapy session and a chat show.” But that’s only part of the picture.

“Though people think of it as ‘experimental,’ the show is really about storytelling--one of the oldest, most traditional forms of theater,” McDermott said. “All that’s missing is the campfire and the woolly mammoth killed beforehand.”

Lowe, a La Jolla Playhouse subscriber, happened to read about the venture about a month ago and called the theater.

The Playhouse began soliciting volunteers at the beginning of the year through its Web site at https://www.lajollaplayhouse.com, where potential guests were asked to describe themselves and “their most poignant moment.” The majority of the applicants came in to interview with “Lifegame” guest coordinator Stefan Novinski. More than 150 applied for the 40 spots, some of which are still available.

“The criteria I was given is, ‘Is this someone you’d like to have a drink with?’ ” Novinski says. “We’re looking for a mix--with two exceptions. No one under 30, because they rarely have enough distance from their lives. And no one employed as an actor, since this is about being honest--not performing.”

Ninety minutes before show time, Lowe makes his way to the theater for a half-hour orientation session. The actors, four men and two women, are kicking a pat-ball--a mass of taped-up newspaper--to foster teamwork and relax. Simpson calls the seat-of-the-pants production a “low-wire act, since you don’t hurt yourself badly if you fall.” It’s more of a risk for the theater, Crouch observes, since the show can be fantastic one night and “rubbish” the next.

“There’s no way you can rehearse; making plans leaves you dead in the water,” says McDermott, who starred in “70 Hill Lane” at the Playhouse in 1998. “There’s something very Buddhist about improvisation. It’s about being in the moment, letting go.”

As the interviewer on this particular night, McDermott reassures Lowe that he bears no responsibility for the show’s success and that he can refuse to answer any question. The audience reacts better when the guest is in control--trust is essential, McDermott explains. Still, liberties may be taken, actress Stella Duffy warns.

“My life as a spaghetti western,” Lowe quips, flashing a nervous grin.

Lowe is given a bell to ring when the cast is “spot on” and a horn to register any missteps. He’s also shown a microphone into which he can verbalize his thoughts, and puppets to help tell the story. Tonight is a first, the guest is informed. The audience will be invited onstage at the end to share their own memories and offer feedback.

The empathetic tone is in marked contrast to that of “Shockheaded Peter,” a brash, black comedy directed by Crouch and McDermott that played at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse last month. If color and design were central to that show, “nondescript” is the “Lifegame” motif. On one side of the stage are two chairs and a “tuffet” where the actor playing Lowe will sit. On the other are a couch draped in white and instruments for musicians.

After eating a Chinese meal in solitude, Lowe is escorted to the Forum. The crowd gives him a rousing welcome, and the third preview show begins.

Which actor is to play the slender, attractive chemist? “The one least like me,” Lowe responds, pointing to Guy Dartnell, a bald hulk of a man.

“How would you like to be remembered?” Lowe is asked, after taking his seat onstage. “What’s your earliest memory of Mom?” The cast dramatizes Lowe’s mother dressing to go out on the town as a wistful Richard looks on. Aspects of his childhood growing up in Hong Kong are also on display: a typhoon striking the family home, being served his favorite Black Forest ga^teau, golf lessons in which the lads fight to stand behind a hip-wiggling young vixen. The first act concludes with a Shakespearean rendition of young Richard being bullied during an Isle of Man football game.

Outside the theater, the intermission chatter is positive (“inventive,” “poignant,” “pretty fresh--not like it’s plugged in”). Several people say they want to come back to witness another life dramatization. Still, a few skeptics found the material formulaic and had reservations about the guest. “Lowe was too smooth and articulate,” says Tom Cosgrove, a Playhouse subscriber. “When I heard that British accent, I thought he was a plant.”

Inside at the start of Act 2, a bombshell drops.

“What’s the defining moment--when you first became an adult?” the guest is asked. “About eight years ago when my parents died,” he replies.

The audience sits in silence as Lowe fills in the gaps. His mother, suffering from acute rheumatoid arthritis, and his father, who had also become ill, had decided to take their own lives. When the buzz dies down, Lowe adds: “It’s OK. They had a fantastic life and didn’t want to be a burden.”

McDermott and the cast, clearly taken aback, quickly try to regain their footing. Still, their efforts to draw him out fall flat.

“Tell Guy what you were thinking at the time,” McDermott suggests. Lowe walks over to the actor and whispers in his ear. “What an incredible thing!” Dartnell repeats softly. “But there’s nothing to do. I’ve got to move on.” Lowe confesses onstage that he never processed the incident and the scene ends--to halting applause. In fact, he says after the show, he didn’t mention this incident during his pre-interview.

Things lighten up with a puppet-oriented segment about molecular lab work and another about an unconsummated flirtation in Santa Barbara. When it comes to lasting relationships, however, again there are no cards to play.

“‘I guess that’s a throwback to being independent, not wanting to rely on anyone,” Lowe says of his lackluster love life. The show ends with his admission that he’d like to “pack up everything and disappear for a number of years.”

Cosgrove, the doubter, finds Act 2 convincing--enjoyable, in fact. “They captured who Lowe was,” he says. “I like the fact that they didn’t do too much with the suicide. They didn’t because he didn’t. He couldn’t come up with the words.”

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Afterward in the green room, the directors assess the evening. “This is the first time we had a story without love,” Crouch says. “I was more shocked by that than by his parents’ suicide.”

Simpson talks about how his perceptions have changed as a result of doing “Lifegame.” He no longer makes assumptions or labels people. “Too many exceptions,” he says.

McDermott sidesteps the opportunity to judge the show. Some of it worked, some didn’t, he says. In any case, traditional standards do not apply to improv: “You have to flirt with being bad to be good,” he says.

And Lowe? He found the experience “hugely worthwhile” and in the end was pleased with it.

“Though nothing was coming at times, I don’t really feel that I failed,” he says. “I just told it the way it was. At the beginning, people feel they know you--but they don’t. Things take them by surprise.”

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“LIFEGAME,” Mandell Weiss Forum, UC San Diego Campus, La Jolla Village Drive at Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla. Dates: Tuesdays to Saturdays, 8 p.m.;

Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Through July 9. Prices: $19 to $39. Phone: (858) 550-1010.