DwarfCast 19

I finally got round to listening to Ganymede & Titan's DwarfCast 19, their instant reaction to Red Dwarf's Back To Earth, Part One and to my surprise a comment I made on their website was read out at about twenty minutes in.

Featuring Jonathan Capps, Karl Eisenhauer, John Hoare, Tanya Jones, Seb Patrick, Tom Pyott, Jo Sharples, Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes.

Passenger Information

LIFE IN THE CHEAP SEATS
Reviewer: Webcowgirl
December 18, 2007

Without doubt, one of the most clever shows I will have seen this year is going to be “Train of Thought,” a terribly fun event that took place for just barely a week. The concept, as it was explained to me, was that you would ride the tube and be able to hear the thoughts of the other riders. This massively clicks with several of my interests, most specifically, site specific performance and, um, not telepathy but the concept of a dreamtime where you experience several different layers of reality (many pasts, for example) while being aware of being in the now. (I also am interested in the Tube in general, not to a freakish level of geekishness, but enough.)

Anyway … the play was more fun than I expected, despite having many of the challenges I associate with site-specific works. (If you go to a lot of these, you realize that the vagaries of the space, especially if it is a public space, is something you just have to deal with. You’re not going to sit down in your chair and have an usher and get drinks during the interval – it’s just not how it works.) We actually met a “conductor” before the show (and were caught up with the rest of the group), but then had to wait 20 minutes for a circle line to show up.

From then on, it was pretty smooth sailing. The gig was that we had headphones on listening to a radio station, and a little FM transmitter was broadcasting to us on “The Oracle Line” (marked on a map we were given out before we boarded), which said what the names of the different stops were as we pulled up to them – and admonished us to Mind the Gap as we exited the train. It also let us in on the thoughts of our other passengers, in a series of vignettes – from the usual mindless “where’s my book” to “God, look at these pictures of us when we went to Barbados …” to “I hate my job” – but as you heard the “thoughts” played you cast your eyes about the train trying to figure out who was “thinking” them. I had total synchronicity with the “where’s my book” guy – it was really just like reading his mind! I found this ridiculously pleasant.

While I did have problems with reception at times, overall this was a great play and I can’t wait to see what Minkette will do next time!

(This review is of a performance done Friday, December 14th.)

Pregnant

We've reached the end of the line for the Train Of Thought.

The third and final piece I wrote for Train Of Thought. This was not included in the show, judge for yourselves. I play Trevor, again recorded by David Aldhouse.

The Life & Death Of Thomas Cromwell

I'm taking part in a rehearsed reading today of Thomas Cromwell, a play which some scholars think may have been written by Shakespeare. Well, bits of it anyway, with a group of friends and probably under the influence.

It hasn't been performed for four hundred years and there may well be a good reason for that. All that changes today at 2pm here.

It's My Birthday

Twenty eight years ago today I sprang forth and the planet was never the same again.

I'm reliably informed that I share my birthday with: John Lennon, Brian Blessed, Scott Bakula, PJ Harvey, Tony Shalhoub, John Entwhistle, Alastair Sim, David Cameron, The Phantom Of The Opera, the Khmer Republic and a slavery-free Costa Rica.

Shame about David Cameron, but what can you do?

Chain Gang 2009 Episode 2 Storyline

Since my storyline for Episode 2 of Chain Gang 2009 wasn't chosen, here it is:

Brian and Susan return to their hotel room. He is amorous, but she is distracted. When she undresses he gets even more amorous, but she gets in the shower instead, much to his disappointment.

Loudly, over the noise of the shower, Brian and Susan have an awkward conversation which leads to his calling reception to find out if there are any other Fergusons staying at the hotel. The voice on the phone tells him they cannot give out guest’s personal information and Brian ends the call, then loudly for Susan’s benefit states that reception said there are no other people called Ferguson staying there.

Brian is bored and tells Susan he's going out to get her something, it’s a surprise. Susan gets out of the shower, but he’s gone. She remembers the piece of paper the other Mrs Ferguson gave her and rifles in various pockets to find it. When she does, she has to convince herself to unfold and read it. The writing on the paper reads ‘Look behind you…’

Martyn

The day gets off to a bad start for this commuter as the Train Of Thought arrives at the next station.

If you think Martyn overreacts and assumes the worst, spare a thought for the people on the tube during the performances who were not in the audience. A group of people arrive together all carrying radios and wearing headphones and furtively searching the carriage to try and work out which passenger is having these thoughts. It must have seemed pretty suspicious.

I played Martyn, again recorded by David Aldhouse.