2–3 players · 50–90 minutes
Premise: two people who don't know each other are forced by external circumstances to spend the night together in one place.
Preparation: first the location is asked from the audience — a station because the train was cancelled, a hospital waiting room, a mountain hut. Two characters are equipped by the audience: name, age, job, and above all: a reason why they have to spend the night here. While their character is being equipped, the other player covers their ears so that they go in unprepared. The only thing the players reveal to each other is their character's age. Next the location is dressed in as much detail as possible.
Black.
As the lights come back up, an instrumental version of "Strangers in the Night" plays. The first character is shown going through a routine action. The second character arrives. During the improvisation the two characters should keep oscillating between attraction and repulsion, gradually drawing closer over time.
When one of them speaks about a past event, that event can be shown in flashback. The other player slips into the corresponding role.
The piece fictionally covers an entire night. It ends with the two of them being released, freeing themselves, being let go, or simply able to leave. One of them stays back briefly while the lights fade to black and we hear "Strangers in the Night" again.
Variant: with three players, the third takes the other characters in the flashback scenes. They can also play a side character in the original scene — the bartender in the empty station pub, the nurse in the hospital — but should stay uninvolved and not pull focus.
(Format by Dan Richter — Foxy Freestyle)