IT WAS a set of swollen toes that gave experimental theatre company Improbable the inspiration for its latest production.

Panic, which is on at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre this week, centres on the antics of the Greek god Pan – a character artistic director Phelim McDermott imagined himself embodying as he hobbled around his Brixton flat.

This bizarre side-effect of an unfortunate medical condition was the starting point of a play that tackles our inner desires and the panic people experience in modern life.

“The show moves between Phelim’s life as a single male in his flat to him imagining himself as the great god Pan, chasing nymphs through the forest,” explains the company’s associate director, Lucy Foster.

“Pan is not one of the best-known gods but he has lots of roles – he’s connected to nature and he is able to create panic by playing his Pan pipes.”

The image of a regular bloke shape-shifting into an Ancient Greek faun is pretty hard to get your head around without seeing the play for yourself, but Improbable has made its name creating “innovative” productions.

Once the initial concept of Panic had been decided, the actors developed the plot through improvisation and individual pieces of writing.

At no point was a script formalised, which means the play can change from performance to performance.

“It’s getting more set, the more we do it, but there are situations in the show that still have some room for flexibility, so we try to do different things each night,” says Foster.

“Sometimes we film our improvisations and if there’s a bit we really like then somebody transcribes it and we use it in the show.”

She plays one of three nymphs.

“We also have our own modern-day stories, too,” she reveals, “moments that happen to us in the city.”

The set is crucial to the audience’s understanding of the shifts in time and place.

“We use a lot of brown paper and we use it in lots of different ways,” she explains. “One moment it creates some trees in the forest and the next it becomes part of Phelim’s flat. We use projections to help us move between scenes.”

There are also plenty of costume changes in the piece, which Foster says the cast enjoyed finding for themselves.

“We had an idea of what we wanted – something that fitted in with the idea of nature – and we went out shopping separately to get our own costumes. We all went quite floral.”

Despite its mythological content, Foster says the show is relevant to modern life.

“We get told about these gods when we are at school and then we tend to forget about them,” she says. “But if you think about it, there is an ancient god that represents every element of our lives today.”

Formed in 1996, Improbable has toured its show to venues across the globe, in countries including Egypt, Malaysia, Australia, Germany, the US, Canada and Lebanon.

PANIC at The Unity starts tonight and runs until Saturday. Read a review of the show in Thursday’s Arts Diary.