do NOT touch the clown!!!!!!

[donottouchtheclown]

Bibliography

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Asif, N., 2023. The Role of Symbolic Politics in Shaping Political Attitudes: A Study of Trump and Biden’s Campaign Speeches. Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects.

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Bonello Rutter Giappone, K., Francis, F., MacKenzie, I. (eds) (2018) Comedy and critical thought : laughter as resistance. Rowman & Litchfield Inc.

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Fox, K., (2018) ‘Humitas: Humour as performative resistance’ in K. Bonello Rutter Giappone, I. Francis, F., MacKenzie (eds), Comedy and critical thought: Laughter as resistance, Rowman & Litchfield Inc, pp.83-99.

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[donottouchtheclown]

CURTAINS UP!

Our two performances have come and gone...

We are feeling exhausted, but so so proud of the work we've done. It was an amazing experience to finally perform our show with an audience, because the only way to really test out if our show works was by seeing the audience's reaction. The audience laughed and gasped in moments where we were expecting it, but also in new surprising moments. However, what made us realize that we achieved our goal of creating a show that makes audiences reflect on how populists seize and maintain power by preying on individual fears, weaponizing bureaucracy, and manufacturing a language of crisis was the many conversations we had with audience members after the show about that exact topic. What was surprising was that everyone had their own interpretation about what exactly we were referencing, but everyone understood what we wanted to say. This means that we achieved our goal of not situating our show within a specific socio-political context, it was not the US or the UK but a broader reflection of the rise of far-right populism around the globe.

It is clear that to continue the development of our show we need to continue performing with audiences, ideally with a multi-performance run. We will continue to develop this show, but for now some rest...

Don't miss our before and after pics of this entire process!

[donottouchtheclown]

FINAL LIGHTING CUE LIST FORM(AT) FEST

CUE 1: INCOMING

Audience banks lit + general wash for Lau’s improv as she receives audience. Regular warm back lights (or none)

CUE 2: LAU TO RADIO

Lau walks to radio after audience bites carrot

Audience banks out, general wash changes to just radio area lit

CUE 3: OPENING RADIO WITH LAU

Lau turns on radio

Radio spot on with a very light flicker

CUE 4: MAYOR BOOTS APPEARS

Radio says  ‘… his annual address to the people of Cropshire’

Following spot on, capturing mayor Boots. Rest of light stay but soften.

CUE 4.5: MAYOR BOOTS PIED FUN RED LIGHTS MOMENT???????

CUE 5: POLITICIANS 1

‘A carrot cake has been thrown’

Crossfade: following spot and radio spot go out over 5 to 6 seconds as general wash with stained glass window profile spot comes in. Back lighting is white – parliament room, no fun.  

CUE 6: WELCOME TO CROPSHIRE

After ‘Single?’ ‘Double!’ ‘Hear hear!’

General wash, bright (4 second crossfade?). Magenta back lighting. Window spot out.

CUE 7: LAU KICKS RADIO

Lau bumps into Radio

0 sec fade-in of radio spot (slightly flickering), Rest of lighting dims slightly

CUE 8: RUN FROM LITTLE FRANKIE

After radio ‘carrot collection will begin IMMEDIATELY!’

Following spot and maybe red pulsing side-lighting fade in as radio spot fades out, and front and back lighting return to CUE 6’s brightness (4 sec?). Spot starts small on Nic (upstage left). When all others start running in a huddle, spot widens and moves to catch the huddle. When huddle falls apart, spot stays on Nic and Lau as Lau tries to escape from Nic. Finally, the spot will light Vera and Nic as they blend the carrot.

CUE 9: SECRET INTERACTION MILLIE AND WINNY

Nick and Vera walk off with blender

Following spot out and, if there, red side-lighting out (3 sec fade). General wash stays, maybe becomes faded on the sides to make scene more intimate. Back lighting still magenta

CUE 10: WEATHER REPORT 1

Weather report jingle starts

Magenta back lighting becomes neutral or goes out, bright golden sidelights fade in (over 7 seconds?), like sunlight flooding the space.  Following spot on, encircling curtain frame + Eleanor + Vera.

CUE 11: MAYOR BOOTS INTERROGATION

Eleanor: ‘…eager to hear his response to the recent carrot ban’

Back lighting comes in, magenta, in 0 or 1 sec. If we don’t already have it, some front in the middle as well.  Sides stay golden, following spot stays.

CUE 12: (TRANSITION) PEOPLE PROTESTING AS VERA CHANGES COSTUME

Curtain frame pulled upstage after Vera: ‘Rainy Day!’

Golden side-light and following spot out (3 sec fade?), magenta back lighting and front lighting stay the same, nice and bright.

CUE 13: POLITICIAN SPEECH VERA

Vera opens curtain (from behind it)

Following spot on (1 sec?), front out (1 sec). Following spot encircles Vera’s full body . Back lighting parliament white, just from centre back light, OR magenta light but very softly since it’s a speech to the townspeople.

CUE 14: GIVING UP THE VEGETABLES Vera closes curtain

Following spot tightens slightly (search-light size) and starts searching the space; red slow-pulsing side-lighting fades in (6 seconds), medium-brightness general wash. Soft full row of magenta back lighting

CUE 14.5? (DO WE NEED THIS, OR SOME OTHER CHANGE IN LIGHTING, DURING THE FIGHT?)

Everyone starts running right after Ari drops to the ground

Maybe the red pulsing starts going faster from this point, and maybe we want the front and back lighting to brighten here.

CUE 15: FOLLOWING SPOT OUT

Vera and Nic off

Following spot and red pulsing lights out (3 sec )

CUE 16: WEATHER REPORT 2

Weather report jingle starts

BASICALLY COPY CUE 10 Red pulsing light stops pulsing and fades into a golden-yellow sidelight (over 7 seconds?). Magenta back lighting changes into a soft neutral light. Following spot on (3 sec fade?). It still encircles Vera and Eleanor’s full bodies.

CUE 16.5?: ANASTASIA AD

Curtain opens

Pastel pink back lighting flashes on in 0 sec, maybe some extra front lighting?

CUE 17: CARROT DEALING

Abi: ‘And if anyone asks, Anastasia sent you

Following spot and side lighting out (4 sec), medium-brightness general wash with magenta back lighting – mysterious.

CUE 18: RADIO WARNING

Ali runs off after Nic sees them with the vegetable coat.

Slightly flickering radio spot on (2 sec?)

CUE 19: KEIR STARMER SPEECH

Curtain pulled open by Eleanor (from behind)

COPY CUE 13 Radio spot and back lighting out, and following spot on ( 2 sec?). Following spot encircles Eleanor’s full body . If any front or back lighting, then very soft.

CUE 20: WEATHER REPORT 3

Weather jingle starts

COPY OF CUE 10! Following spot stays, golden side-lighting and soft front comes in.

CUE 21: ARI POOL PEEING SPEECH Ari steps through curtain frame

Medium-bright magenta back lighting fades in (1 sec) along with general front lighting. Following spot stays, also following the action of the ballet after Ari’s speech.

CUE 22: WEATHER REPORT OFF Vera closes curtain

Golden side-lights and following spot out (8 sec?).

CUE 23: BALLET STARTS Swan lake music starts

Brightening of magenta back lighting and front lighting, side lighting – pastel pink ?-  comes in for vibes (2 sec?)

CUE 24: PUTTING ON BOOTS Lau puts on Ari’s boots

Big focus with front and back lighting on Ari’s boots moment, magenta back lighting brightens?.

CUE 25: LAURA CELEBRATES

Abi and Ari exit

COPY CUE 3? Lau’s part of stage lit, radio on (3 sec ish). Back of stage as unlit as possible, magenta lights out or very soft.

CUE 26: POLITICIANS 2

Politicians come in, celebrating

4 sec crossfade: Lau’s area and radio out, fade-in of CUE 5 (politicians 1)

CUE 27: LAS KETCHUP HAND DANCE

Music starts

Some sort of stupid disco lights with the back lighting (1 sec)

CUE 28: DANCE FINISHES

‘How handy!’

Back to CUE 27 setting (4 sec)

CUE 29: ANASTASIA TO TOWNSQUARE After Abi: ‘Almost-vegetable nutrition substance is part of that mission.’

Copy of CUE 11 (weather report + magenta back lighting)?, or of 16.5 if we decided to put the pastel pink in with the first Anastasia ad

CUE 30:  SOLO WEATHER REPORT

Vera kicked in stomach by Nic

Golden side-lighting and following spot stays, pink back lighting out. (10 sec) We just keep a little light (side lights or top?) on  Rainy Day who lies beaten up centre upstage. The following spot shrinks to a size that only encircles Eleanor’s head and the state issued hands. The image should feel pretty claustrophobic.

CUE 31: ARI COMFORTS LAU

Ari shoes Eleanor off stage

Golden side-light and following spot fade out. There’s just a bit of front lighting, nothing else.

CUE 32: ARI ROCK CONCERT

‘Hit it!’

Following spot on, Rest of lighting out? Or very soft front and back (4 sec)

CUE 33: POLITICIANS ENTER Politicians enter

Window fades in, white side lighting and red back lighting or something like that (non-pulsing) - 4 sec?

CUE 34: INSTRUMENTS DROP

Instruments drop

Red and blue pulsing lights – medium tempo

CUE 35: KILL THE ENEMY (10 sec?) Ari is lifted

Pulsing  goes absolutely crazy . Some kind of darkening of the space (maybe sidelight reddens, maybe front goes almost out?). Following spot goes around like a search light

CUE 36: ANASTASIA PR SPEECH

After Ari: ‘And this is how you get shit done!’

Gradual fade-out of everything except following spot and a very soft front and back lighting in the middle of the stage. Upon Ari’s signal, following spot shrinks to minimum and points to floor.

CUE 37: ANASTASIA SPEECH

Ari signals 3 2 1

A  quick fade-in of pale pink back lighting in the centre, though it not be much (0 sec). The following spot grows back to medium size. 

CUE 38: ANASTIA SPEECH DONE

‘Stop fighting it’

Following spot out (1 or 2 sec?) along with pink back lighting: Just soft front and back lighting in the centre.

CUE 39: THE COATS

Ari and Abi off

Dusky sea-green side lighting and husky white back lighting? Soft front (but enough that we can see Lau’s facial expressions). Some kind of mysterious image that works well with the coats basically.  (10 sec?)

CUE 40: RADIO

Few seconds after ‘… tune it to the weather report’

Flickering radio softly lights up. Simultaneously, everything else goes down slowly until ALMOST out but not quite 100% (10 sec? How long is Dani’s radio fragment?)

CUE 41: BLACKOUT

End of radio fragment

Blackout (0 sec)

CUE 42: BOW LIGHTS

After a few seconds of blackout

General front/ back, light on audience.

[donottouchtheclown]

FINALLY FOUND THE ENDING!!!!!!

Today was our last rehearsal before tech and, even though we felt much better about the ending, we still wanted to find a way to give a ray of hope without prescribing a solution to the problem of the rise of far-right populism. We invited Emina to see a run of the show so that she can be prepared to run our light cues in tech tomorrow and give us an outside eye in cleaning and tightening our scenes up. After the run, Emina pointed out what we feared: she wanted a ray of hope at the end, even if it is a little sliver. She proposed that Lau's character pull out the little carrot out of her mouth. We loved that idea! It meant changing the welcome to Cropshire moment with Ali and Lau so that Lau's character was the one that had the little carrot instead of Ali's carrot so that the ending moment made sense. We had already promised that we would not make any more changes, but it was a creative risk worth breaking our own promises for! Ali had tech for Broken Screens so it was a change we will have to do during tech! The rest of the day we spent cleaning up our transitions and tweaking scenes. For the parliament scene there was a quick fix: keep your feet planted on the floor! For the carrot dealing scene we needed to make sure the image of the horse was working and that the getting off of the motorcycle was in synch!

[donottouchtheclown]

Aserejé moment

In our last rehearsal Nohar suggested that we made the introduction of the state sponsored hands bigger and clearer so today we worked on that scene. As a joke, Ari proposed doing the aserejé dance by the Spansih group Las Ketchup. Everyone loved it and learned the dance. It was a perfect moment of randomness that introduced the mechanism of the hands perfectly and fell in line with our choreography heavy show. Sometimes what you think is the worst idea can actually work, which is why, as a company, we always gave ideas a try no matter how odd they sounded.

[donottouchtheclown]

SHARING WITH NOHAR

After implementing the feedback from our sharing with Camden, Helen and Mia, we reworked the ending of our show. Instead of striking the set during Lau's final speech, we now put our blazers on over our heads and formed a wall of faceless politicians behind her as she spoke to the radio. We also adapted her speech and Anastasia's final speech to only refer to our imaginary world, leaving out external references completely.

The feedback we got from Nohar:

First of all, It’s not a UK-based show anymore. It shows the workings of populism. Ari is not Trump, we’re taking elements of him but also of other places, that feels successful. I did not see it coming immediately that Ari would be a populist. Things were not clear immediately but then they fell into place in a very satisfying way.

Questions our sharing raised:

What does the peeing in the pool speech mean, where did it come from.

All of us are speaking slightly too fast. You need to focus a bit more on diction and use a slightly slower pace. Especially with PR speech

Artichoke sequence that leads to Ari stepping into the boots worked great, felt like fantasia

I don’t understand how veggies became legal again. Erasing old problems and creating new problems happens too quickly. It needs to be a bigger moment.

Screen as a TV through which we see the weather report is working really well. Then it starts representing several layers of screens: TV screen that becomes stage screen etc. Great complexity. Reminds of a literal smoke screen.

State-sponsored hands: it feels confusing at first where it is coming from. It initially feels great that it’s state sponsored, but then it gradually turns out to be a bad development. This points to our complicated relationship to the state as citizens. Complete libertarianism where we fully let go of our relationship to the state is not good, but the state funded hands take it too far the other way. Very interesting.

Slow down a little bit to really introduce this new feature of the state issued hands. Maybe we see people liking it at first: they don’t have to work hard! Things that are branded as nice usually turn out to have a price on them. Show what it feels like to suddenly not have hands. Maybe it allows you to do loads before it starts taking things away. Feels linked to the artichoke moment, the grand speech of we’ll make everything better.

Anastasia PR speech is brilliant. Really interesting would be to see how she is at points not in control either, due to the state sponsored hands. Even the number two of the leader is not protected. It would be interesting to see how the mechanism is controlling her a little bit, even if not as much as everyone else.

Question about the end: who is Laura, is she speaking on the radio, who is she talking to. Maybe this is currently unclear because we only showed the second half

Great that the ending is reduced to just one voice. Maybe that speech is not about knowledge and understanding but about confusion and lack of control. Emphasize the I don’t know who to believe in anymore. It’s interesting that we’re finishing with the radio, which is just a voice and cannot be as impacted by the state sponsored hands (?). The weight of Lau speaking for the first time at the end is really powerful.

Great to see how the world has expanded, as well as our confidence within it. The boots, raincoat and rails work great.

Technical note: really practice with the hangers on the costume rails. Maybe use with ones that are a bit more steady and less easy to fall. Let’s get different coat hangers.

The right wing populism is really clear in your piece. Different people from different backgrounds will be able to read different contexts into it. With the way you are using rhetoric, you're really appealing to people without actually talking about anything substantial which is very fitting with what you want to aim at. The piece also does not give a black and white impression of things that are either good or bad anymore: you have gone beyond that and the complexity of the topic really comes across now.

The hands metaphor is great, the importance now lies in introducing it properly.

Emphasize the technicality of the reintroduction of vegetables! I.e. due to the technicality of there being no vegetables left, legalizing veggies does not change anything.

Maybe at the end Lau cannot find the weather on the radio anymore, that’s why she starts speaking to the radio at the end.

Leave in a bit more time before Vera gets pulled off screen and hit.

[donottouchtheclown]

actual press release moment !

PRESS RELEASE

ABOUT THE SHOW: 

“If you don’t like the rules, just leave!”  

When a politician gets pied in the face with a carrot cake, the Cropshire Council declares a draconian ban on all carrots. And they are just getting started… 

The Terribly Credible Definitely Edible Tale of the Town of Cropshire is an absurdist, metatheatrical fable about how populists seize and maintain power. Using slapstick, speechwriting, and biting political satire, the show dissects the ways that bureaucracy and the language of crisis are weaponized to control communities. 

The Terribly Credible Definitely Edible Tale of the Town of Cropshire is the first production by Diagnostic Trouble Code, a new international theatre company creating bold, political and playful ensemble performances. We create work that aims to detect the malfunctions of society and provide fuel for emergency repairs. Our collective brings together performers and theatre makers from all over the world, including Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, France, Taiwan, the Netherlands, USA and UK. Our process places intercultural exchange at its core, bringing together the wide ranging artistic and cultural knowledge of each member to create work that resonates across borders and brings us closer together.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Eleanor Bett (performer/deviser)

Abigail Chase (performer/deviser

Nicolas Lamy (performer/deviser)

Vera Majoor (performer/deviser)

Daniela Mandoki Somlo (sound designer)

Laura Monroy-García (performer/deviser)

Ariana Sacristán (performer/deviser)

Ali (Yuan-Ling Chen) (performer/deviser)

TICKETS & INFORMATION: 

Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Webber Douglas Studio 

10 September @ 6.30pm & 11 September @ 3pm 

Tickets available here: https://formatfestival.co.uk/projects/the-terribly-credible-definitely-edible-tale-of-the-town-of-cropshire/ 

[donottouchtheclown]

SHARING WITH COHORT

For today, we invited Helen, Mia and Camden to gather feedback on the second half of our show. We mainly wanted to test whether there were any unclear moments or scenes that dragged on for too long, and how our ending scene and the political stance of us as a company would be interpreted.

We were worried that the ballet would give soviet associations, what with the swan lake music we use, but the ballet reads as a western political tool and has connotations to the global north.

Ari's transformation into a Richard III-like figure is a real surprise

Great to see the hands-mechanism from your first sharing return. There are fun opportunities to use the hands to puppeteer the person in front. Watching the mechanism caused questions of what the rules of the hands are

When Peach comes in and says she’ll bring back the carrots and then Anastasia immediately comes in with her meat-inspired product, this causes confusion. It is not very clear right now that the last government blended all vegetables. Maybe add a politician questioning whether we ‘can't just grow more vegetables’ and the hand mechanism covering the mouth up

In regards to your characters' use of rhetoric in speeches: it took a while to place where Ari was politically, as a type. Same with Abi’s speech. When Abi's speech stared to reference our real world (with guns etc), the audience got pulled out of the imaginary world.

Be quicker to open the curtain with every weather-report reveal

Queueing: it is unclear that time is passing as our characters return to the queue over and over

The ballet was brilliant.

Politics are already confusing enough as is, it's ok to be a little more on the nose with what you want to say about right-wing populism

Highlights: ‘how handy’, shaking hands in dance number, Abi’s British accent, 'there’s not going to be a storm'.

What does the peeing in the pool mean in the context of the piece? It gives a sense but leaves questions about what exactly you are implying. Maybe that's the point though.

Getting your left-wing audience to sympathize with this right-wing leader is maybe even more powerful than you saying that populism has bad effects. The piece currently succeeds in this and it will not feel like you're spoonfeeding the audience if you make it clearer that Ari is right wing

The rules speech should be live. It should be in the first government half. It is exactly the type of liberal bullshit that suits that government. And that sets up the line of ‘the last government was boring’ by Ari later on very well.

Emotional experience: information overload, then being convinced by Ari, then seeing ugly power and feeling that really strong, then the question of my own ignorance. Then a loss of hope. Then emptying the stage and the wires is wanting to do something but not knowing how. Empty stage at the end caused a space to open up in myself. I also wanted to make change. So what now, a space with a question mark came up.

Maybe do not introduce a mystery veg substitute, instead go back to vegetables but package them in golden plastic or whatever. Privatize them, just create the illusion of the crowds getting their needs met.

We can actually go further, galvanize the crowd and get them on some right wing bullshit. Just be clear what the problems are the right wing character is pointing at.

Exclusivity is the key to making clear that Ari's character is right wing. Right wing populists use left wing promises: we are going to do all of these things for you. The difference is that it's just for this selective group.

The real violence in the fight really shifted the tone. Just look at performer safety in your rehearsal (protect the knees!) and if you want to make it real or big and vaudeville. Really block it. It looked great though.

Make a clearer difference between characters as you're switching (costuming helps!)

List of laws in the law factory felt too texty, too long

Framing the different texts with the curtain frame really helps the audience get in the mode of listening. The literal framing helps, lighting helps, but what else may you be able to use?

Since our last sharing there is so much more depth and meat. Adding more clarity won’t make us lose that.

[donottouchtheclown]

Final structure (ACTUAL FINAL)

Motifs to track: 

Radio

Our show is about how populists seize and maintain power by: 

preying on individual fears

weaponizing bureaucracy

manufacturing a language of crisis

Three threads 

Politicians

Citizens/The People

Media / Radio 

Questions:

What does the hand mechanism represent? 

Mark the politicians/the words of the government

Carrots represent… 

Basic needs

Nationalist symbol

Scarcity/language of crisis/”sacred values”  

How can we establish that Winny and Millie are both clowns? 

OPENING MOMENT 

Millie tunes the radio.

We see a politician talking about the price of carrots with the hands convention. 

Millie shares this with the audience and pulls out a carrot. It is very special to her. 

The politician gets pied in the face. (SPLAT! on the back)

Establish: 

Millie likes carrots

There is a radio 

Hands convention 

Inciting incident carrot cake (SPLAT!) 

POLITICIANS SCENE 

Establish: 

Ineffective politicians 

Ban on carrots 

High price of carrots and some dissatisfaction among Cropshire people 

WELCOME TO CROPSHIRE - montage

Carrot blending. 

First weather report. 

Reports increased price of carrots. 

Establish: 

General removal of carrots. 

MAYOR BOOTS

Townspeople, as journalists, ask the silent wellies to comment on the pie. 

Establish: 

Peach is one of the journalists who interrupts Boots

Peach has some great ideas but thinly veiled nationalistic language. 

Peach uses Millie as a rhetorical device 

People say why couldn’t you have taken the aubergines? So the politicians say fuck it and ban vegetables too. 

POLITICIAN SPEECH 

Establish: 

Yvette Cooper?

Promises equality as a failed attempt to appease the crowd. 

Vegetables get banned. 

GIVING UP THE VEGETABLES 

Establish blending and more chaos in the town. 

A fight ensues between the townspeople because some people don’t want to give it up. 

WEATHER REPORT/MYSTERY MEAT

Weather report sponsored by Digestomel. 

Need to see boots. 

Mayor is meant to speak, but doesn’t. 

Cuts to:

MYSTERY MEAT 

Anastasia gives her ad

Establish: 

Anastasia strikes up an alliance with Peach. 

Millie is disgusted by it. (nobody wants it) 

CARROT/VEGGIE DEALING 

Little Frankie catches Winny with the cookbook. 

“See something, say something.” 

Establish: 

Only Winny gets caught. 

POLTICIAN SCENE (framed by weather report)

A solutionless debate. 

Politicians are about to throw tomatoes at Winny but they jump back into tomato debate. 

PEACH TOWN HALL (framed by weather report) 

Town hall where Peach is sort of interim mayor, and Rainy Day contradiucts her about peeing pools, and Peach encourages debate. 

Empty promises made. Dead cat politicis. 

WEATHER REPORT 

Establish: 

Politicians have gone to recess without solving the debate, Peach is getting celebrity status. 

VEGETABLE BALLET (ALL THREE LINES CONVERGE)

Bleeds out of a Peach speech. 

Establish: 

Peach’s rise to power in montage form. 

Turns into a nationalist display. (Restoring glory)

Peach and Anastasia quid pro quo. 

Release Winny from stocks. 

Millie buying it. 

Millie helping Peach put on the golden wellies. 

POLITICIAN SPEECH 

Establish: 

Peach enforces the temporary removal of civil liberties/due process just so that they can get some shit done. 

Peach declares a State of Emergency and pushes meat alternative meat product. 

Hand mechanism. 

No more debates, just executive orders. 

MYSTERY SUBSTANCE 

Establish: 

People are waiting for their vegetables and don’t receive them, and are handed meat and force fed by the government issued hands. Hijacked by an ad. 

Millie realizes that Peach isn’t good. 

Rainy Day refuses to eat and starts a fight. 

Millie shows solidarity with Rainy Day. 

POLITCIAN SCENE / LAW FACTORY

Politicians, all eating mystery meat, establish the death penalty, surveillence, capitalism, media, etc. 

Excused by the death. 

Establish:

Some physical/puppet/mechanical gesture to demonstrate that this government is stylistically and formally different 

Legalizes vegetables but there are none because they’ve all been blended. 

ANASTASIA PR SPEECH 

Deviates from an evil speech and blends her. 

WEATHER REPORT 

Establish: 

No Rainy Day 

Given w/ Hand mechanism 

Anastasia blending interrupts the Weather Report. 

MILLIE FEEDS WATERMELON TO PEOPLE IN THE STOCKS 

MILLIE PREPARES TO SPEAK 

What is the show about

Our show is about RHETORIC, ABSURDITY, and INDIVIDUALISM 

Speech, censorship, propaganda

Crisis 

Dead cat politics, manufactured outrage, excuses, scapegoat, celebrity 

Populism, nationalism, extremism 

Violence, power, capitalism

Bureaucracy and corruption

THESIS 

Our show is about how populists seize and maintain power by preying on individual fears, weaponizing bureaucracy, and manufacturing a language of crisis. 

We explore this through absurdity, slapstick, and satire.

[donottouchtheclown]

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[donottouchtheclown]

Dramaturgy meeting #2 with Sam Ward

Today we went over to our mentor Sam's studio to share with him the new dramaturgical structure we created. Before diving into this, however, we had a chat about to what extent we should specifically mention the situation in Gaza.

Sam’s opinion: No. It’s always on our minds whilst we are writing, therefore, the audience will have it on their mind as well when seeing it. The audience probably does not really care what we, as non-experts who are not directly affected, think of it. Israel is a fascist state, you are making something about fascism. The audience will connect the dots because it is underlying the work already. Beware of TED-talkifying theatre, just teaching your audience something – theatre has the potential to go further than that and be more about experience than information. Plant the seeds that will steer the audience’s association in the right direction and they will do it for you. The tomato debate which hints at the talk around genocide does that very aptly.

Take Lynch’s films: the signifier is not as close to the signified as in a usual film. The gap between the signifier and the signified is so massive in Lynch’s films that it becomes hugely important for the audience, the more they have to do the work the bigger the emotional relationship will become that they will have to the work. If the signifier and the signified are very close to each other, they won’t think about it much and it’ll leave their head quite soon.

On to discussing our new structure. After sharing the main plot beats, Sam gave us the following takeaways:

It's so much more focused than where it was before. The structure hones into what we want to tell, Lau is a clever protagonist to follow, Ari as fascist sounds like a strong idea.

A worry: The middle feels slightly vague. As an addition, not a change, really think about Laura as a protagonist, a Marlyn finding Nemo. Maybe think through a five act structure of Laura as a protagonist, where is she in each act. It seems we kind of lose Laura for a bit in the middle. Have some way of narrating where she is in every act. If you’re going to give me a protagonist, give me a protagonist. Really see both Ari and Laura as your focal points. Really track both of them across and be really specific.

The scene where mayor boots does not appear and the carrot dealing scene feel a bit distracting from the main arc. The train the audience on is the Ari rising train. Really chase that.

The one thing I don’t buy is Laura speaking up after the meat-selling. If she is going to speak, we need something harrowing, like her dad getting killed. Don’t get Anastasia too caught up in the plot, she is great seasoning which we need to have but Laura’s character is the meat of the piece and her speaking up needs to be well done and emotional. If she is going to break because of Vera’s death, they need to be best mates before that and it needs to be established in a sweet, cartoony way. Find something specific to Laura that Ari takes away.

In terms of rhythm of the piece, the story we were telling feels quite confusing. Maybe this piece offers an opportunity for you to start in an easy to follow rhythm and as things start to speed up with the government, you actually want to start having things follow after each other really fast, so that the audience finds it hard to keep up.

Maybe we can start abstracizing more towards the end of the piece, start throwing more images rather than being very meticulous about this is exactly this and that is that. Maybe there’s just a long strange sequence that provokes a string of feelings, to release that specificity. Suddenly, a lot of stuff is happening and things are just awash with movement. We have the luxury of having a lot of people, we could actually get nuts. People can appear and appear and appear and immediately get cut off etc.

[donottouchtheclown]

The importance of knowing what you are saying! (21/08/2025)

Today we began devising our new structure. Having a clear roadmap for what we wanted to say made the rehearsal so much more fruitful. Decisions where made by asking ourselves: how does this serve what we want say? This not only focused our rehearsal, but allowed to discover new mechanisms for our storytelling. We began with the last politician scene (a.k.a. Law Factory), which Lau directed as we improvised movements and text. Then, we worked our way backwards to the rise of Peach to power, in which we figured out how to use the mechanism of the curtain rail as a tv frame that shows snippets of different actions occurring at the same time. Also, we discovered how to include the audience, as they became a part of the frame with Millie of the people gathering to protest the incarceration of Winnie. We also understood how to divide the playing space so that as the play goes on, the government slowly encroaches into the space closest to the audience, which represents the private domain.

[donottouchtheclown]

Going back to the origin...

Today we knew we had to restructure our entire show. But before we began that mountainous task it was important that we were all on the same page about what it was we wanted to say with our show. We began by listing words that we thought were related to the show. Once we had those words, we sorted them into three groups. From there we chose a word from each of the groups that represented the entire group; rhetoric, individualism and absurdity. These then became a ven diagram that allowed us to find the words that fit in all three categories, which were:

Scapegoat, crisis, corruption, power, extremism, manufactured outrage, speech, propaganda, capitalism, bureaucracy, nationalism, censorship, violence, populism, excuses.

Using these words we came up with a sentence that summarized what we wanted to say:

Our show is about how populists seize and maintain power by preying on individual fears, weaponizing bureaucracy, and manufacturing a language of crisis. 

We explore this through absurdity, slapstick, and satire.

With a clear line to follow, we then proceded to created the dramatic arc of the three layers of the show: the people, the politicians and the media. By looking at each arc individually we ensured that each layer had its own dramatic development and we could see the points where the layers intersected. Also, we traced the sentence we created in each of the layers so that we ensured they were going in the direction we wanted it to go.

Then, we arranged all the plot points from each line in order to give us a clear structure from which to begin devising from.

[donottouchtheclown]

Vera cancel culture speech response

Response to: Free speech rules to protect academic freedom come into force - GOV.UK (01/08/25) and Plan for Change - GOV.UK

The key is to restore our freedom. To restore our country to its optimal form. To reach greater heights and maximise potential by liberating hard-working people from the constraints they are currently facing. Not to inhibit, but to encourage. Our people are our most valuable asset. Our people should not have to restrain themselves but should feel free to utter opinions as they like. It is vital for our economy to speak the truth and speak it loudly. The truth is all that matters in an economy that looks to the future, looks for change on the horizon. The future is bright, and so are our people. To maximise potential, our people shall hereforth be supported by us in no meager form. One might ask – how do you mean, governor? I say this: this government was elected to deliver change. To improve the lives of working people and strengthen our country on a way to a freer, brighter future. Freedom of speech is a non-negotiable. We are restoring our people’s needs in an attempt to optimise organic thought processes and back-and-forth flows of progress-oriented brainstorms. We care for our people and take responsibility to set up platforms of equal opportunity to all that are able and willing to rise to the occasion. We call forward any and all citizens who feel confident they can join us in robust discussion without fear of coddling or belittling, as promised when you took your vote. So to speak: bring it on. To optimise potential we will need to make tough decisions. These will not be easy choices, but they are necessary trade-offs to deliver the priorities of working people, while taking a responsible approach to public speech which is required for long-term national development today. 

[donottouchtheclown]

Thursday 7 August

For this last day before our August break, we all prepared a freewrite and a political speech response. After getting together in the morning to share these and get an initial conversation going about where to go from here, we collectively went over to Sam Ward's studio to debrief and figure out our next steps.

Some key points from the conversation:

WE NEED A PROTAGONIST: someone to follow the story through, and to empathise with. This can either be the person we think will be good but then becomes the fascist, or someone who follows this person then sees this change happening

THE PROTAGONIST NEEDS TO BE A CLOWN; the rest of the town people would probably function better when not bound to the clown rules. The clown protagonist will be very in the moment, capable of sharing things with the audience in ways other characters can't, and searching for short-term solutions to fix the situation. Like the audience in real life under populism, the clown will struggle to foresee how badly things will go down soon due to this in-the-moment-ness. Also make use of the transgressiveness of the clown.

START WITH DISSATISFACTION AND A DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT: There needs to be unhappiness and a reason for it i.e. the carrots are very expensive. Combine this with a slow, inefficient government, and you have enough reason for a 'hero' to step up and 'make change' (before shit goes down)

GET ON THE SAME PAGE: What exactly do we want to tell and why? The more specific we are, the better we can build this story of the protagonist and choose an appropriate metaphor for the vegetables.

SOFT VIOLENCE TO HARD VIOLENCE: silly fake sounds become organic, the crunching of bones and tearing of flesh and appearing of blood. Do we still want to weave this thread in? It would be an interesting opposing thread to the digital capitalism one where we replace organic vegetables with simulated matter.

MAIN THREADS: RHETORIC AND ADVERTISING? The contemporary relationship between capitalism and fascism, shown through banning then commodifying

PACING: Get into the scene late, and out of it early. What are the physical rules of this world, how do people move through it? Do they always run into a scene and jump out of it?

EXPLOIT YOUR GIFTS: What opportunities do you already have with this group? Exploit your talents: the writing, the sound, the different languages. What other mediums have you not yet explored fully?

[donottouchtheclown]

SHARING DAY (Tue 5 August)

The day we were all dreading - I mean, anticipating - I mean, well.

Lots needed to still be done today, so after getting all our production tasks in order yesterday we spent the morning frantically trying to get through all the scenes that had yet to be devised, as well as attempting to do a run. We quickly discovered that we would not have time to iron out smooth transitions or work out all our scenes, and needed to focus simply on what props and costume items we would need when and where - we had never done a run with all our props before.

After the lovely warm-up and morale booster that was our participation in PLEASE's sharing, we stumbled through our own and experienced how the pacing was off. Here are some of our key feedback points:

VEGETABLE METAPHOR: The vegetable metaphor has great potential, insofar that it could stand for so many different things in our first politican scene. It also comes with interesting nationalistic associations (they are of the earth, they are from nature, they belong there). Be really conscious of all its potential meanings and try to keep the metaphor as wide as possible.

PACING: The structure we currently have is diagramatic: each scene is attempting to communicate something with the audience. The moment that the audience gets the meaning of a scene before the end of it, we lose their attention. The politician scenes started to become very predictable and repetitive. How can we bring back elements of surprise?

BLACK/WHITE MORALS: Right now, the politicians were clearly the baddies from second one. In order for the complicatedness of this topic to be communicated well, we need to be able to empathise with/associate with characters before they do bad things (at least, if we want to say that everyone can radicalize and everyone has a part in this story). The moment a politician says 'I don't care about the oceans', the audience will dissociate themselves with this character, as they do care, so they must not be a fascist. Bring back the nuance and make the piece smarter.

BE SPECIFIC: Telling all ten stages of genocide is too much. What chunk do you zoom in on, are you most interested in exploring? Is this about the emergence of fascism and do we just see the first hints of it, or do we start with an already established fascist government and does the piece focus on the effects of it on the people? Hit the ground running whatever choice you make, i.e. start with the banning of the carrots/...

STRONG WRITING: Sharp, satirical American sitcom-like writing. Keep using that muscle, there's something there.

GENRE: What other genres might there be that offer you the same performance style as you're currently using, without the inhibiting rules of clowning that keep you from getting on with the story and getting the pacing right? Think cartoon, children's TV programme, ...

MEDIA THREAD: There was something interesting and new in the Anastasia thread: consumer capitalism, replacing vegetables with digital goods. Explore further!

[donottouchtheclown]

Monday 4 August

Monday was spent (re-)recording all text we know we’ll need for the radio soundscapes so far – be prepared to hear some silly accents soon!

Before heading down to the recording studio, we also spent some time in studio D to re-work the Beppo and carrot-dealing scene by getting really specific with our gesture offers and responses. We also devised a scene where we see Lau giving up her carrots, as one of the discoveries we made last week is that we need the audience to be able to follow the gradually increasing impact of the politicians’ bans on the town people, starting with Lau the carrot seller and then spreading to other characters.