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Post by andrew on Sept 4, 2019 21:03:35 GMT
Has anyone been to this yet? I understand it was at Edinburgh prior to it's current Royal Court run. I saw it tonight and am still chewing it over. The 'experimental' element of this is that the audience sit in a circle with books and are encouraged to read or take in illustrations as staged elements occur. There's is a strong element of audience participation, but only really in terms of reading things aloud when prompted. Sometimes people are directly invited to speak, sometimes it's left for someone to volunteer. Nobody declined, but this is gently done and I would imagine if you declined they would smile and move to someone else. There were clearly some keen wannabe-actors who couldn't wait to have their moment, good on them. There was a moment I thought the reading aloud concept was most powerful: {Spoiler - click to view}When the actors left the space and the audience readers continued in their absence. The notion that suddenly we were a self-sufficient audience creating this part of the play by ourselves really struck me, and I thought linked in nicely with the idea of the characters running away, and the 'plan' of Miles continuing in the book but not occurring in reality anymore. But there were times when I wasn't so sure about the effectiveness of the books. It definitely creates a barrier between you and the action. A large part of the dialogue is written in the book. This is part of the concept of the play which I understand, but it encourages people to read what's going on as opposed to being present in the moment with the actors. After a few minutes I deliberately would put the book down when I spotted a large section of dialogue coming up. I could almost have sworn at the start that there were planted members of the audience, but snooping around afterwards I don't think they were. Some people were just excellent at interacting with the actors, and the way people were 'handled' when perhaps they'd skipped ahead a page or had gotten lost was brilliantly handled. The story itself is intrinsically linked to the way this is performed, and it certainly isn't a subject I've seen portrayed on stage before. I hadn't read the synopsis and so found it really intriguing to try and figure out what on earth was going on, it's gradually revealed in layers, and the play comes together quite nicely. Overall I don't feel like I saw something earth-shattering, but at 70 minutes it's a very pleasant and interesting evening. I'd have felt bad to have missed out on the experience. This is probably something I'll still be thinking about in the days to come. I'm really interested to hear what others have to say.[/spoiler] |
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Post by Stephen on Sept 4, 2019 22:19:24 GMT
I'm glad this gave you a lot to think about andrew I'm really looking forward to seeing and experiencing this. It was so nice to have a bit of a different audience in the theatre for this tonight too. Lovely crowd really ready to experience something a bit different. I was behind the bar tonight so you may have seen me. If I'd recognised you I would have said hi! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2019 8:24:56 GMT
Is the seating configuration very equitable? You say there's a circle, is it just a single row and there's no clear "front", as it were? I hate queuing for the Upstairs space at the Royal Court, but I booked this one based on having enjoyed Tim Crouch's work before, so it would be a huge relief if all seats were basically equal and I could join the queue further back than usual, where the fights and queue-jumping don't take place.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2019 8:57:05 GMT
Is the seating configuration very equitable? You say there's a circle, is it just a single row and there's no clear "front", as it were? I hate queuing for the Upstairs space at the Royal Court, but I booked this one based on having enjoyed Tim Crouch's work before, so it would be a huge relief if all seats were basically equal and I could join the queue further back than usual, where the fights and queue-jumping don't take place. In Edinburgh there were two rows, in a circle with a couple of entrance/exit points. A slightly different feel if you are in the second row, I imagine but not a major one. This was one of my Edinburgh highlights this year, thought provoking and cleverly wedding form and content. |
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Post by andrew on Sept 5, 2019 9:55:21 GMT
Is the seating configuration very equitable? You say there's a circle, is it just a single row and there's no clear "front", as it were? I hate queuing for the Upstairs space at the Royal Court, but I booked this one based on having enjoyed Tim Crouch's work before, so it would be a huge relief if all seats were basically equal and I could join the queue further back than usual, where the fights and queue-jumping don't take place. To add to @cardinalpirelli, most of the interaction was with the front row in the circle. There was definitely no mad rush for the front row, I think people were nervous of it, there was a couple of empty seats actually. The second row would miss out on most of the interaction. To go a bit TM for a moment "a good view from all seats, taller patrons may wish to pick the front row for unlimited legroom. Choose seats furthest from the 'aisles' for the best view thinks the monkey" Stephen gutted to have missed you, I bolted straight upstairs when I arrived for the inevitable queue unlike my usual free tap water and toilet routine in the bar for 10 minutes, I've got plenty of Royal Court tickets coming up though, it'll happen... |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2019 9:58:25 GMT
Thanks both, I feel reassured.  |
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 5, 2019 10:10:19 GMT
One to queue to get the ‘worst’ seats, always wary of the front row when any potential audience participation expected.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Sept 5, 2019 13:33:43 GMT
I thought it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I don’t say that lightly. I’d say this was up there with the infamous RSC/Wooster Troilus and Cressida.
Didn’t have the foggiest what was going on and hated the mandatory audience participation. The night I went a young foreign girl was picked to read and really struggled, it was humiliating to watch. An elderly couple oh front of me were complaining they couldn’t read the tiny font in the script. If a play is entirely dependent on the audience reading the scripts themselves why not make it large print ffs?
A word of warning. You aren’t allowed to take any personal items or bags (even tiny purses) into the auditorium. The ushers said it’s because there’s no space under the seats but the seats are standard folding chairs set in a wide circle and have far more space around and under them than regular theatre seats. The start of the play was delayed when I saw it as the entire audience basically had to run down stairs and back up again to put their bags in the cloakroom.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2019 16:00:48 GMT
As I say, I very much liked it but, as per above, and given the way that people are expected to be part of it in a more active way than usual*, I can imagine that it is dependent on the audience.
*Reading, speaking, watching and juggling those three things at times.
EDIT: not actual juggling, definitely NOT actual juggling, no circus skills are required....
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Post by lynette on Sept 5, 2019 20:59:27 GMT
Sounds like my idea of hell, not being allowed to have your bag ( containing the jelly babies, water bottle, tissues and other essentials) being expected to read aloud and then being abandoned. I do hope this doesn’t catch on. Or maybe....if it were to take off, it would be fun to recommend to people one doesn’t particularly like..I’m getting a bit carried away now.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Sept 6, 2019 8:25:54 GMT
Normally I love audience interaction so I was really looking forward to this, but the interaction was so forced and strictly proscribed it felt fake. Being prodded to recite like a parrot isn’t true interaction.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 7, 2019 15:53:05 GMT
Came over as a Read or Dead performance at the Globe with some of the text being read out by audience members.
A good natured audience who needed very little prompting to engage with the piece.
Not enough deviation to really consider free-will, pre-destination and belief.
Looking forward to more opinions, have a feeling I may have missed something and may be deeper than I perceived.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 8, 2019 12:55:12 GMT
A play that lingers and still thinking about it.
The plays dichotomy is with the written and the acted, the deviations are primarily in one medium, which is the ascendant? maybe obvious but we often overlook this.
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Post by Forrest on Sept 13, 2019 14:49:30 GMT
I went to see this last Monday and absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I found it conceptually very well thought through, clever and lovely acted, and while I initially had my concerns about being required to participate (something I mildly dreaded, to be honest), I ended up doing it twice over the course of the evening (for one brief dialogue, and the spoiler part hidden in andrew's post, which I don't want to give away if anyone has not seen it yet and plans to) and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. (I totally did!)
I didn't find that the book created a barrier between the audience and the actors: if anything, since we were constantly looking at the same pages, sharing the same "knowledge", and the fourth wall was fully broken with the them giving us instructions, I thought it added to the immersive strength of it.
I also really liked the story, but found myself wondering if - perhaps - us as an audience being so easily "manipulated" into accepting the loud cheering yesses and the praises for Miles was exactly what he wanted, Crouch's way of telling us that we should, in fact, use our heads more and not be so easily manipulated. (In this respect, I found the production really clever.) I also really liked the ending: the (for me, at least), question left open about the nature of reality - which ending regarding Sol was true, and which was just a product of imagination.
Overall, while I never thought of myself as a fan of experimental theatre, I left the RC as kind of a fan of Tim Crouch, and with a lot to think about.
Will try to attend the RC's Theatre Dialogue Club about the performance on this upcoming Tuesday (the 17th), since I am really curious to hear what others thought about it.
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