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Gary Kitching has a question for the class. "Imagine you woke up one morning and everybody over the age of 20 had been frozen in suspended animation," he says. "What would you do?"
Gary Kitching and his co-performer Chris Price are used to stepping into the unknown. As members of the Suggestibles, a Newcastle-based comedy improvisation team, they often find themselves following the instructions of drunken punters in the back room of a pub. Yet, even by their standards, a class of surly 14- year-olds is a pretty intimidating gig.
The two Suggestibles are at Greenfield School in County Durham, whose catchment area takes in one of the most economically deprived regions in the country. The school often hosts residencies by theatre companies, dance groups and visual artists - but this is the first time an improv team has attempted to put comedy on the curriculum. It's not a simple task, transferring the conventions of a comedy club to the classroom. There's no bar, for one thing, and the students seem suspicious of the Suggestibles' off-the-cuff approach. But Kitching's question seems to fire their enthusiasm. So what would they do if everybody over 20 was frozen?
"Put all the teachers into stupid poses," says one student. "Then take over the school," adds another. "Yeah - then the television stations. And then the world."
Given...