Encore Thoughts

I went to see Medea today - an encore performance of the National Theatre production at my local cinema.  I've watched a lot of theatre this way now.  I rather like it, as I've posted before.  But...
I seem to drift.  My thoughts are almost always pulled elsewhere.
Now, this was a very good production, mostly great performances (wasn't convinced by some of the smaller roles) and I did enjoy it.  I don't think, if I'd been in the room, that I'd have drifted.  But I noticed, often, that instead of fully engaging with the work, I was thinking about something else.  I stopped listening to the words and would snap back with a jolt.
I think this isn't because of the show, I think it's the format.  I had the same thing with Macbeth last year and many operas.  I didn't have this with The Audience or Skylight.  But they had a lot more humour and it's harder to drift if you're laughing.
That isn't to say my drifting ruined the event for me.  I drifted to a purpose, as I basically planned out a complete production of Oedipus the King in my head.  I had no intention of doing so before I went, I just started thinking and reacting to the play (which I last saw over ten years ago but have never staged) by thinking about a play that I have staged many times.  In part or in whole three times.  I used to stage a lot of Greek tragedy, or at least, a simplified sort.
I've never fully staged a production with a proper chorus.  It's always been chorus light.  This has largely been for practical reasons - not having enough people - but also because I didn't really know how to do it.  I liked to get to the bare bones of the drama, rewriting the plays so that the chorus was a singular figure.  But watching Medea I started again, in my head.  Not that I wanted to copy the dance work or the idea of chorus used in this production.  I had an image of something quite different in my mind, something from a dance piece elsewhere, that hit me.  And then I was designing the set, looking at a rehearsal structure, thinking back to the texts I've used in the past.
And yet I was still watching Medea, still enjoying (if that's the right word) the event, still engaged - if fitfully.
Then I remembered that this is how I write sometimes.  I'll get a DVD of a Shakespeare or other classic text and half watch / listen to it, while notebook in hand I dance shapes of dialogue about a page.  Sometimes I'll watch, sometimes I'll work, sometimes I'll get myself a cup of coffee.  There is a term for this kind of viewing.  Selective inattention.  And it's just how my cookie rolls.
So, you might be in for a bit of Greek tragedy from me again.  It's been quite a few years since the last one and I think it's time to go back.
But, for the moment, I need to finish writing Historic Crimes for next month.  It's nearly at a first draft stage.  I've been pulling all the threads of my notes together and am very nearly there.

But till then - here's a new episode of a comedy thing I've been working on.  The Museum of Tat.  Enjoy.

listen to ‘The Museum of Tat #2’ on Audioboo

Milk Bottle Autumn Newsletter 2014

It's a busy couple of months for Milk Bottle - with several projects happening at once.  Robert is down to his last three projects of Project 10/52, with two being ticked off by October - the new audio comedy series, The Museum of Tat and a new play Historic Crimes which will be live streamed online as part of the first performance.  There's also a revival of a favourite project from earlier in the year The Juliet Inquiry which was hugely successful.  Book now, listen now, get involved.

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...
The Museum of Tat
Devised by Robert Crighton with Michael Fouldes
The Museum of Tat is the repository of all things tat. New tat, old tat, the useless, the cheap and the ugly. The first episode of this six part audio comedy is available to listen now. Just click here!You can even get involved as photo submissions to the museum are welcome. Post them on our twitter feed @MuseumofTat or facebook page The Museum of Tat. Guidelines for submission can be found here.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...
THE JULIET INQUIRY
By Robert Crighton
Based on the story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare 
Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

A complete re-imagining of the play where the story of Romeo and Juliet is told as a modern day public inquiry.  In this version the Montagues and the Capulets were once close families - until their children fell in love. This is the story of how love can tear apart, as well as heal, and how that love can seem when put under the public gaze.

Performing on Friday 3rd October at 7.30pm at the Lavenham Village Hall 

Performing on Saturday 4th October at 7.30pm at the Offton Village Hall

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...

Historic Crimes

World Premiere By Robert Crighton – the Quay’s Artist in Residence

What would you want to see if you could look back in time and watch famous events in history?  And what would you do if they greatly disappointed you?  Or you discovered a hidden crime?  Would you tell the world if you discovered that Shakespeare no less was guilty of the worst of crimes?  Could you ever read his plays again?  Or allow them to be staged?  World premiere of a modern morality tale about Bardolatry, sex and lies – staged as a live radio broadcast and streaming live online at www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

Performing on Monday 13^th October at 7.30pm at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury

Tickets Pay-What-You-Want - can be reserved via the Quay Theatre Box Office

Telephone: 01787 374745 or online at www.quaytheatre.org.uk

Opening the Doors

Later today I'm going to be doing a bit of recording. The first installment of a new audio series to accompany one of my projects for the year - The Museum of Tat.  We're going to be improvising the text and, though I have some idea where I want to go, it could move in almost any direction.  Most of the material for this project will go on the sister blog - Museum of Tat - but I will talk about how the production side of things happen here.
What is the The Museum of Tat going to be about?  Well, it's about our culture, it's about how we cherish somethings and hate other - by using the word tat, we make a value judgement.  But is what we call tat something really worthless?  Some people love their tat.  They can't get enough of it.
And then there's the question - how do we define tat?  As opposed to, say, kitsch.  Where do the boundaries lie?
And then there's the other question - what is the price of tat?  Because, to give us our tat, resources are spent, workers exploited, people - literally - die to give us it.
And then there's the straightforward fun in wandering round charity shops looking for tat and just wondering - what the hell were they thinking?
So, lots of angles.  We'll see where we go.
More soon...

Just When You Think You're Out of Date...

About ten years ago I wrote a short play called Fantasy Terrorist League about the changes we were making in the law that would damage our democracy.  It seemed topical at the time.  I expected it would have a short life span.  I have officially retired it as a piece of my acting repertory a few times now, primarily because the play was giving me crows feet (the play involves a lot of rictus grinning).  But it just won't bloody die.
I wrote couple of follow up pieces, variations on a theme, if you will, which I had performed with it a few years ago - I called this The Fantasy Terrorist Variations.  I then thought, enough, and put it to bed.
And then Boris Johnson piped up and started the ball rolling again.  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/25/boris-johnson-britons-visiting-iraq-syria-presumed-terrorists
In response to the crisis in Iraq and Syria, to the numbers of British citizens travelling abroad to support terrorism, he wrote that: "The law needs a swift and minor change so that there is a 'rebuttable presumption' that all those visiting war areas without notifying the authorities have done so for a terrorist purpose."  Basically, shift the burden of proof - if you return from a terrorist state then you are automatically presumed to be a terrorist and you must prove you aren't.  Which is exactly what my plays have been about - a shift towards a presumption of guilt.  Once again, they are no longer a bit out of date.
The governments response was swift and dismissive (thank goodness) but I wonder whether this was just because they saw it as a genuinely stupid idea, rather than a knee-jerk response to anything Boris says - i.e. that the response was more about domestic politics than good governance.  I hope it was both.
So, what is my response?  Well, we shall see.  I have a project in hand this year.  In fact I have written a new Fantasy Terrorist Variation to add to my collection.  It is called A Swift and Minor Change. And I'm about to record it now.

Additional - I've just posted my response online.  You can listen to it below.

listen to ‘A Swift and Minor Change’ on Audioboo

Two new books out...

Well, that's not quite true - one is new, the other is a repackaged book (The Shakespeare Delusion had a couple of typos and an odd error on the cover that irked me).  So, here's the links.  Have a gander.

The Juliet Inquiry 
By Robert Crighton
Based on the play 'Romeo & Juliet' by William Shakespeare 
Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

A complete re-imagining of the play where the story of Romeo and Juliet is 
told as a modern day public inquiry.  In this version the Montagues and the 
Capulets were once close families - until their children fell in love. 
This is the story of how love can tear apart, as well as heal, and how that 
love can seem when put under the public gaze.

The Shakespeare Delusion

By Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true story of the Shakespeare delusion!

Two down, one to go...

At last, I have posted the final episode of Lost Tribe of the Trolls - which means I'm two thirds of the way through my trilogy.  The final story is The Paper Moon Trolls - which thanks to upgrades on audioboo, can now be released in longer episodes, will be in six to eight parts, released every couple of weeks or so across the year - the final episode on Wednesday 31st December to mark the end of my artist residency at the Quay Theatre.  So, if you've missed out on the story so far then have a listen on the players below.
Enjoy.

Part One:  The Natural History of Trolls

Part Two:  Lost Tribe of the Trolls

March of the Shakespeare Trilogy

I didn't quite intend to spend so much time on Shakespeare this year.  I planned to do a piece or two that touched on him, I planned to perform his narrative poems (one down, one to go) and that was about it.  But for some reason my Shakespeare-ish-based plays won't go away.  In fact, they have morphed into The Shakespeare Trilogy.  First up was The Juliet Inquiry - a straightforward project, a one off.  Except it went so well, we're doing it again.  In October.  Twice.  (Details below.)  It's entirely possible we'll keep doing it.  It was very well received, it was interesting to do, there is still room for improvement.
Then there was a new version of an old play The Shakespeare Delusion which I put into the schedule because it timed well with the LOST One-Act Festival.  It didn't win, but it did then return for the Face to Face festival and is returning to London again.  In October.  This is a play that is definitely not going away as I plan to try a tour it next year and would love to take to the festivals.  
And now there's Historic Crimes.  Which is being staged in... October.  I don't know how well it will go, I haven't finished writing it yet, but it will now cap off a season of work, playing with Shakespeare.  The Juliet Inquiry, though technically a version of Romeo and Juliet, was as much about how the contrast between an old story and the new world.  How they exist in very different worlds.  The Shakespeare Delusion is about the ridiculousness of the so called authorship 'question' - where the question is asked by a madman.  Historic Crimes is about how society changes, how things once considered acceptable change and what would happen to the Shakespeare industry if he fell from grace - basically it's about Bardolotry.  It's a loose trilogy, but there is now part of me thinking it could be presented as a whole.  Three plays, one after the other.  An unit of thought.  I don't know.
Either way, I'm hoping that all three plays, over October, will be available in some format online.  Either live streamed as audio and even possibly video (watch this space).  So, wherever you are, you can catch a bit or all of my accidental Shakespeare Trilogy.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...
THE JULIET INQUIRY
By Robert Crighton
Based on the story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare 
Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

A complete re-imagining of the play where the story of Romeo and Juliet is told as a modern day public inquiry.  In this version the Montagues and the Capulets were once close families - until their children fell in love. This is the story of how love can tear apart, as well as heal, and how that love can seem when put under the public gaze.

Performing on Friday 3rd October at 7.30pm at the Lavenham Village Hall 

Performing on Saturday 4th October at 7.30pm at the Offton Village Hall

Tickets Pay-What-You-Want

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...

Historic Crimes

World Premiere By Robert Crighton – the Quay’s Artist in Residence

What would you want to see if you could look back in time and watch famous events in history?  And what would you do if they greatly disappointed you?  Or you discovered a hidden crime?  Would you tell the world if you discovered that Shakespeare no less was guilty of the worst of crimes?  Could you ever read his plays again?  Or allow them to be staged?  World premiere of a modern morality tale about Bardolatry, sex and lies – staged as a live radio broadcast and streaming live online at www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

Performing on Monday 13^th October at 7.30pm at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury

Tickets Pay-What-You-Want - can be reserved via the Quay Theatre Box Office

Telephone: 01787 374745 or online at www.quaytheatre.org.uk