All Over... (for now)

So the show has been and gone, and hardly any of the process made its way onto this blog as I'd intended. That was largely due to the fact that it took me so long to get down to the writing that before I did I felt guilty for blogging as any keyboard tapping should have been directed at my script, and once I did start writing, which took me right up to the week of the show, there just wasn't any time left...

But despite my eleventh hour panicking and general insecurities, it all came together in the end, and was pretty well recieved. I still have a lot of work to do on it of course, but for a first showing it was ok. I'm going to have to think about how much more I write though, it's already running at about 45 minutes, and that's with less than half the characters I'd intended to create. The key really is to develop my narrator character, Tali, as all the other characters come from him.

For those who weren't lucky enough to see the show, or be bored by me about it beforehand, Tali is a trickster character who is immortal, but must survive from mortal food. When he wakes up after centuries of sleep and tries to feed himself, he realises the massive unsustainability of global food production and sets off on a mission (by bicycle of course!) to make humans act sustainably, so he can ensure that he will be fed forever.

On his journey (so far) he steps into and influences the lives of Linda - a middle aged, middle class, middle-Englander who gets involved in a tree protest to stop a supermarket being built, (with dramatic consequences for her marriage); Jim - a recently elected councillor from a certain far-right political party trying to convince his local community of his green credentials; and Dan - an unhinged veteran activist who abandons peaceful protest and takes violent action against a childhood hero.

These were characters who I'd imagined before Tali came about so in a way they've had to be fitted into his story, or rather his story had to be fitted around them, when really I want to send him to put a spanner in the works of the dominant institution of our time, the corporation. But I've a lot more research to do before that... (Didn't really visit any corporations on my bike ride)

Technically we managed to control all the lights for the show from a dynamo on the bike. This gave a signal to an analogue dimmer which meant the harder you pedalled, the brighter the lights were. Which tended to vary according to which audience member was pedalling at the time... Well, I couldn't have done the whole show on the bike could I? The power was meant to be provided by a solar generation unit, but unfortunately they sent us a faulty inverter so we had to rely on the mains in the end. Still, the system is in place for whenever the show gets its next airing...

I'll post some photos in a minute (when I remember how!), and some of the written feedback I got from audience members. Thanks to everyone who came to see the show, and for those who didn't, well, you'll just have to come and see the more finished version sometime next year...
Peace out x