Love a good codpiece joke? Who doesn't? Deadwood got you digging iambic pentameter? We're all over that shizz.

Last Friday The Bastion caught Improvised Shakespeare at i.O.

Audience suggestions are tossed into the mix of traditional Shakespearean themes of doomed lovers, histrionic regicide, and annoyingly virtuous princesses.

Many a sword is unsheathed in clownish anger when Ross Bryant, Joe Janes, Thomas Middleditch, Lucas Peterson, Jake Schneider, Blaine Swen, and Ric Walker do their best to squeeze modern laughs out of classic forms.

Of course, some of the biggest laughs come from the clash of context when contemporary concepts are thrown into relief against Ye Olde Elizabethan conventions (see brief video clip below), as when the audience prompted the performers to work robots into the story. Catch the show Fridays at 8 in the Del Close Theater. Forsooth, yo.

(Video clip included with permission. And yes, we're sorry the quality's not fantastic. The Bastion is saving up for a good camera. And better editing software.)

-Elizabeth McQuern