In the beginning there were written words: The group's first appearance in October 1997 was as a reading group, performing staged readings at the Theater Drachengasse. Their regular, late night spot was entitled 'English for English Lovers' and continued once a month until the summer of 2001. From 1998 to 2002 they also read once a month at the ORF's Radio Cafe building up a repertoire of literally hundreds of plays, short stories and poems, and even the odd sonnet. The group was soon known in the trade as the Lovers and officially took on the name English Lovers in 2002. Lovers come and go and the size of the group has hovered between five and ten members since it was founded in the summer of 1997. The players come from England, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Austria and the USA, and their theatrical roots are equally varied. Since their first comedy and impro night 'A Load of Nonsense' in January 1999 at the Theater Drachengasse, the Lovers have moved increasingly towards completely improvised performances starting with 'Late Night Laughs' at the Cabaret Niedermair. For their 2001 show 'Who's On Next?', a mix of impro and sketches written by various members of the group, they added song and dance. The show was a huge success both at the Drachengasse and at Vienna's English Theatre in April 2002 and was followed the same year by 'Zip Zap Zoom' and their first all impro ‘en-suite’ show 'Impro à la Carte'. The Lovers now play two ‘en suite’ shows a year at the Theater Drachengasse, as well as the weekly 'Late Night Theatre Jam', not to mention countless corporate shows, appearances at festivals and of course on tour, as now, with BLIND DATES.