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Reasons to be Cheerful

What have I done this year?  It's nearly Christmas, so time for a recap.

In the realm of free audio I've produced...
Two episodes of Live from the Get In!
A radio version of the award-winning play Fantasy Terrorist League
A re-imagined production of the follow up play, Keynote Speaker, with Simon Nader.
A documentary series using an archive recording of a veteran of the First World War, Wartime Memories.
A reedited version of the comedy Hang
A recording of John John by John Heywood for my other blog - any day now!
The odd totally random thing...
Most of which can be heard below.

And I've also produced the odd bit of live theatre:  returning to London with Undead Bard - including Shakespeare: The Ever Living! and a revival of The Shakespeare Delusion - which will be online for free as a radio adaptation very shortly.
And finally, I directed by good friend Anthea Halstead in the well received adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper.

Actually, this is a bit of a lie.  It didn't happen in a year.  It was nine months.  And none of this could have happened without my fabulous patrons who've all supported my work.  Phil Hope, Sara Knight, Fiona Dinning, Sharon Buckler, Pete Richmond, Alan Scott and my family.
And I could do more - with your help.  Could you pledge just $1 a month - $12 a year?  It's so easy to do and makes such a difference.
And it's so easy with Patreon to give and help my work happen - just sign up and pledge - and you'll get my online audio work before anyone else! And if you pledge more, then you'll get extra special surprises too.
Have a listen, make a pledge, help make next year even more exciting!  After all, it is Christmas*.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP!

*It is now the 1st December and so perfectly legitimate to reference Christmas, nay it's practically an obligation. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! So there.

Hang - about time too!

And, at last, Hang is available to listen for free online.  It was recorded ages ago, released as a download, and now I'm biting the bullet and just putting it out for free.  It's a shame to hide it behind a paywall and you could always become a patron if you feel you want to contribute.

Hang - A Comedy by Robert Crighton

The world is turning inside out - people are starting to turn into animals and no one knows what's normal anymore.  Even the man who wants to be a zebra can't quite fit into this brave new world.

Live Streamed on Monday 31st March 2014 at the Quay Theatre

Starring Robert Crighton,  Pamela Flanagan & Gillian Horgan

Sound Recording: Peter Morris

Post Production: Robert Crighton

Original Live Stream: Tim Regester

Online Comments from the Live Stream: “... it really stands out as something effecting the times we live in...  This is really well acted. I like the style and the humour is right up my street - and I live on really funny street...”

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help.

Or if you prefer it as a video on YouTube - here you go!



And the original trailer for the show - which is very silly, but fun.

In the Darkness... Waiting

As the darkness creeps ever more over the Northern Hemisphere, I retreat further under the duvet.  It's not a depressed thing, it's a planning thing.  Most of my projects are now done for this year.  They're edited, or soon to be, they just need to be released.  Coming up over the next few weeks are...

Hang - the radio comedy that started it all, the story of an ordinary man who wants to be a zebra. Released to none patrons next week.

The Museum of Tat Christmas Special - because you deserve to know what horrors await you.

And perhaps a few surprises...

But mostly I'm planning.  I'm planning a production of The Time Machine for next April; I'm planning a production of As You Like It for July; I'm planning the next two Live from the Get In!s; I'm planning and writing and typing up notes on dozens of audio projects for next year and beyond; and I'm planning a mini tour of The Tat Roadshow, the live version of our radio show.

And I'm planning something else.  Something a bit different.  Something I will need collaborators for.  

Next year I need comics, storytellers and blessed lunatics for shows - all need, ideally, to be based in Suffolk/Essex, for a paying job or eight.  If you've got a project that you're interested in pursuing, be it comedy, drama, storytelling - then I'm looking to produce it.  

Get in touch by email and we'll talk: contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk 

In the meantime - here's some draft artwork for the next Live from the Get In! Tickets are on sale for the next show - 4th March - at www.quaysudbury.com

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help.

New Comedy - This Year and Next

It's been a busy year for comedy and next year there will be more!
Not only have I finally finished the new edit of Hang - a comedy I recorded in 2014 - but also the first two Live from the Get In! shows.
You can listen to the Live from the Get In! episodes now in the players below, and Hang will be available soon - my patrons get first listen to all material, because they help keep the wheels turning on my work (you can become a patron by visiting www.patreon.com/robertcrighton).
And there's more to come - we have confirmed dates for another two Live from the Get In! shows for next year.  The show broadcasts/records from the Quay Theatre on Saturday 4th March at 7.30pm and Saturday 6th May at 7.30pm - it's always so much fun to catch the recording.  Tickets can be bought from the Quay website now www.quaysudbury.com

Live from the Get In! Episodes One and Two:

The Yellow Wallpaper

This weekend was quite a busy one.  I finished doing a bit of acting in a short film and then went to get in a production of The Yellow Wallpaper, a fascinating work by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  It was a sell out two night run and turned out really rather well - we're looking to do something with it in the future.  As per my usual habit, here's the basic programme information from the night...

Quay Productions Presents…

The Yellow Wallpaper

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Performed by Anthea Halstead

Directed by Robert Crighton

This is an intimate staging of a classic piece of feminist literature - telling the story of a woman isolated in a house in the country, trapped by her husband and family, and forbidden to work, or even to write. All she has to think about is the room she’s in – and the yellow wallpaper.

Performed Monday 14th & Tuesday 15th November 2016 at 7.30pm in the GKR at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury

‘Director’s note:
Though I’m credited as director and Anthea as performer, it isn’t quite so clear cut as that. Rather than choosing a piece, laying out a vision and casting accordingly, Anthea brought the original story to me and suggested we create something from it. Together we’ve pieced together a way of telling this story. Originally written as a first person, in the moment, journal account of events, Anthea wanted to tell the story as an older woman looking back. With this as a starting point we’ve worked together with the text, editing and adapting the piece as we went along. It’s been a long process, nearly six months have passed since we first starting playing with the text, and a number of ideas about how to realise the story have come and gone. This might not be the final version either - the show you’re watching tonight may yet be the start of our next exploration of this text.

Thanks to Alan Scott for lending the lighting, as well as everyone at the Quay for supporting new work like this.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help.

Making Waves

Boy has it been a depressing day in theatreland - I've been trying to work all the angles of the conscious uncoupling of the Globe and Emma Rice, and I can't see how this could have been done worse.  Everyone's unhappy - even those who don't like her work are worried about how it all looks.
I'm not going to talk too much about the artistic logic of modern dress v original practices, and the other careworn non-arguments that were news in the 1900's and rather tedious now, and focus initially on the logic of the committee.  The Globe is an interesting beast, built slightly too late to fulfill a dream, run to be artistically and educationally interesting and always in danger of being a tourist trap.  At the top of all this is the obligatory board/trustees... a committee.  (I don't know precisely how it's constituted, but a committee is a committee whatever the constitution.)  
The board/trustees/committee obviously realised that the status quo would have to change - after two directors who played with original practices and the odd discrete experiment, director number three had to be different.  Thus did the board/trustees/committee create one hell of a Heffalump trap for themselves.  I think I can see how this might have happened, having met a few boards in my time.

Once Upon A Time... I remember pitching a big project to a board once.  The project was big, exciting, mad and I didn't expect anyone to go for it.  Much to my surprise, they did.  Project announced.  Then, when we met again, I presented how I would make it happen and the room went a bit quiet and awkward.  In a flash I realised - they hadn't believed me when I said I actually wanted to do something big, exciting, and mad, they assumed I was just saying it.  It was clear that the project was doomed because, though they liked the idea of something big, exciting, and mad, they sure as hell didn't want the project to actually be big, exciting, and mad.
I suspect this is what happened at the Globe.  Emma Rice pitched a big, exciting, mad change of direction and they bought into the idea.
Then, fuck me, she actually went and did it!
And worse, it seems to have made a fair bit of money.

Why do I say worse?  Sometimes a huge success is as dangerous to an institution as a failure.  A board likes a stable balance sheet, likes to see trends and an audience it can predict.  I suspect the statistics on box office showed a boost of new and younger people and a signification drop in the regular audience.  Let's not pretend that a lot of people were right miffed at the change in format (LIGHTS!)  I suspect that the board/trustees/committee feared losing that regular audience and that they wanted to reassure them that normal service will be resumed asap - hang in there guys, we'll get her out as soon as we can!  Because no one wants to lose an audience of regulars who will come to another bog standard production of Measure for Measure rain and shine.  Those fickle new audience might only come for the five star reviews - and you can't guarantee those.
Of course, I speculate.
There is another issue at play as well - those who have an emotional connection with the founding of the theatre as a recreation of the original, as a place to act the plays as composed.  I understand that feeling, whilst intellectually it has to be dismissed.  Beyond the obvious problems with performing plays 'as they were originally' which is impossible without an actual time machine, this project of the original was taken away from the Globe before it was erected.  If had been built when it was first conceived then it would have been unique and valuable.  Built when it was, it isn't quite.  The building itself is deeply flawed as a recreation of the Globe, or any playhouse of the period.  Ironically, considering how long it took to be made, if it had been built a little later it might have been based on actual archaeology, as we now have a lot of the footings for the original playing spaces.  It also isn't even unique anymore - there are now plenty of other recreated spaces in situ or planning around the world which do the same or similar jobs.
That said, it has had success in advancing our understanding of original practices, but there is increasingly a sense that there isn't much left to be done there - which is probably why the Globe chose Emma Rice in the first place.  The Globe has now staged the complete canon of Shakespeare, largely in original practice form or similar, and filmed many of them.  Whilst there is room for doing more of the same, it starts to get a bit reductive.  If there are any plays to be staged in original practice form - and there are plenty - they aren't ones by Shakespeare.  Shakespeare is the last person of the period who needs to be staged this way.
But, still, I understand the emotions around original practice, or OP lite as we've had for the last few years.  Quite reasonably the Globe started only paying lip service to OP once it stopped being interesting - it's gone from solid research to house style very quickly.  But the house style is nice and safe and I'm sure the regulars love it.

But perhaps we're being unfair to the board and the audience that they prefer.  Perhaps it was too much to ask of the audience they had (of the people who built the space, who invested money and emotion in it) to see it handed to someone who wanted to do something very different.  To open their space to a different style and different audiences - to not just talk about different audiences, but have the fuckers actually TURN UP!  To have a different audience come, to have them not just enjoy the shows, but enjoy them in a different way - a way that feels uncomfortably like how it might have been in Shakespeare's day.  As a contemporary event.  Perhaps there's an emotional lashing out because Emma Rice has connected to the spirit of Shakespeare at done it better than any doublet and hose ever could.  That might stick in my craw a bit, if I spent my life trying to recreate something and watch someone else do it better, without literally recreating a fucking thing.  How dare she?
So, the rejection of Emma Rice isn't just about a rejection of a more modern way of staging, of using lights and sound, or any of the other elements in this little mess (and I haven't even got to the sexism!) it's about a rejection of an audience, of an idea of what the audience and a space can do together, it's a rejection of feeling something bigger and bolder and brighter, it's about settling for something just a little bit safer, something that might be more manageable, something that doesn't make so many waves.
And that's possibly what the trustees/board/committee etc. want.  They might not say it, they might not realise it, but their established audience are fairly predictable on the balance sheet, and they don't make waves.

Emma Rice makes wonderful waves.
She had to go.