Historic Crimes - Full Radio Play

It's been over a year since Historic Crimes premiered as part of my Artist Residency at the Quay Theatre in 2014 and finally I have the remixed, edited and complete recording for you.
This production is dedicate to Philippa Tatham who died earlier this year.

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...

Historic Crimes

By Robert Crighton

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?  A modern morality tale about Bardolatry, sex and lies – staged as a live radio broadcast and streamed live online on Monday 13th October 2014 from the Quay Theatre, Sudbury.

Cast:
Julia - Pamela Flanagan
Sylvia - Philippa Tatham
Val - Robert Crighton

Technical presentation by Peter Morris
Final edit by Robert Crighton

This audio production is free to listen or download from audioboom.com - but, remember, the people who made it won't receive anything when you do. If you enjoy this play or you'd like to support the work we do, please consider using the PayPal button below and send us a contribution.

Historic Crimes - payment options

Thank You £1.00 GBP That's So Kind £3.00 GBP Thank You Sooo Much £5.00 GBP This Makes a Huge Difference £10.00 GBP Now We Can Really Get To Work £20.00 GBP Oh My God, Are You Mental? Thanks! £50.00 GBP

The full script of the play can also be purchased online now.

Left to Right: Philippa Tatham, Robert Crighton and Pamela Flanagan

A Ghost in the Machine

I'm supposed to be good at words.  That's my job, don't wear it out.  Finding words for difficult things should be second nature to me, but for the last year or so I have been failing.  That isn't to say that I'm not writing, I've written a reasonable amount this year, but, basically, quite a few friends or friends of friends have died and I haven't really had much to say.  Over a twelve month period I went to five funerals.  And on the news of each death I wanted to write something.  I got out the notebook or pad, booted up Word or hunted out this blog and... nothing.  Apart from the first sentence above.  Finding myself at a loss.
I think this is partly because anything I wrote looked trite - fake.  So this is an attempt to make up for some lost time, by not writing something too obvious about a friend, who has come back to me of late.  And this is because technology doesn't let go of the dead.

Earlier this year my friend Philippa Tatham died.  Not six months before she had come to my rescue by agreeing, at short notice (and on her day off from a run of a play in London) to appear in an audio play, Historic Crimes, that I was live streaming online.  I hadn't seen her in yonks, probably not since the last show I'd press ganged her into - but suddenly she was in my neighbourhood, saying my words, helping me out.  After eight or so hours of rehearsal, general natteration and then performance, she went back home.  Same old, same old.
I sat on the audio play into the New Year, as the edit for download release would take a while and other projects got in the way.  Then the news hit facebook that Philippa had died and no one could really believe it.  She was young, not much older than I, and so it didn't really make sense.  But there is was - in pixels on a smart phone, everyone said so, so it must be true.
And I still had this recording, sitting on a data stick by the computer, waiting.  Not that I could really face editing it.  That would make it true, some how.  So not yet.  This data stick (which I must return to my sound engineer at some point) sat by the computer till a month or so ago, when I thought it was time...  So, I had a listen.  Not a full listen, just a check.  It was very odd experience.  It still is.
You can forget things about people in their absence.  A photograph, especially professional ones, are misleading captures of the past.  Audio is strangely closer.  Even though the recording doesn't feature her own words, her natural phrasing, it does capture those little details you forget.  Ways of speaking, ways of thinking... but what the recording doesn't do is change.  No matter how many times I listen.

It was clear from the off that there was a lot of work to do with the recording - it was well recorded, but the room wasn't fully soundproof.  The play was supposed to have been recorded twice, once prior to the arrival of the audience, the second with audience for the live streaming.  We ran out of time to complete the first recording - so I don't have a clean record of the second half of the play.  This means I have had to do a lot of work to remove audience and other noise from the live version.  I've just finished editing a clean version, with a few edits and changes of timing.  Next, I will do a final clean up, mix in some effects and give it the final once over.  And then, on Thursday, I'll release it online for you all to hear.
 
Of course, what I've really wanted to do is re-record the play.  Not because it necessarily needs it - but because I can't.  Because I can't just phone up Philippa and ask her to do another take.  To ask her to read a new draft.  To have that option.

So, I return again to the problem of words.  What words do I really have to say about this, about Philippa and other lost friends?  Not many.  Just three.
I miss you.

Historic Crimes will be released on Thursday via audioboom.com.

An Historic Day

Another project over - another show down.  Historic Crimes went live last night as an audio play, performed in front of a live studio audience.  Which is a slightly odd way of recording it, as the show wasn't a comedy (there were a few jokes but mostly it's serious) so a live recording with an audience would perhaps be a bit pointless.  Well, not so, because I needed an audience to pay for the recording / live streaming / cast - so they were all part of the same package.
We all met up in the late morning and, after a brief hiatus printing the final script, got down to work.  My fantastic cast were Pamela Flanagan and Philippa Tathan - who I have occasionally worked with before.  A read through, some general exposition about the play and the characters and then a break.  After the break our tame photographer John Bethell arrived and took some completely unfaked shots of us rehearsing.

Philippa Tatham, Robert Crighton and Pamela Flanagan

Then a slow run through of the play, stopping and starting - adjusting timings and generally tightening up reactions to specific lines.  I tried to compress a lot of info for the cast quickly - there's a lot going on in a play of about 45/50 minutes, so we had to turn some sharp corners in terms of emotion and argument.
I suppose I should elucidate to you what the play is.  If you want a one line pitch, I'd say it's the script I'd write if I were writing for Black Mirror - albeit for a radio version of the series.  (In fact, while we're here, come on Charlie Brooker - I could write you a treatment for it if you're interested?  Oh, you've got that covered?  Well, worth a shot.)  The play is as much about technology and the implications of it as it is about Shakespeare and the cultural capital we have tied up in him - so perhaps you could call it science fiction.  It's filled with references to sci-fi, but then I usually hide a few in jokes into my plays.
Anyway, back to Monday.  Evening approached, so we set up the space and Peter Morris, our sound engineer, set up the mics.  We then recorded a dry run of about two-thirds of the play, before running out of time as the audience were arriving (pesky audiences, arriving on time).
And they were a lovely audience, they listened - and that includes the online people, one of whom listened twice.  Some audience comments: "Historic Crimes, a very enjoyable event." "Most enjoyable evening. Glad it was only conjecture!! Well done to you all." "Excellent presentation, keep the shows going, thoroughly enjoyable."
Eventually I will tidy up the recording and make it available as a digital download - but for the next month (until 13th November) the live stream will be available to listen for free here. [No longer available - but should have it available for download asap. Rob]
I'll be publishing the script of the play shortly, as well as a combined edition of the complete Shakespeare Trilogy.  I have to say that of all the projects this year, most of which have been a success, this trilogy of plays have made the biggest impact and I am quite proud of them.  I hope I might be able to stage them all together next year, probably not on one night (it would be a looong evening) but maybe a mixed bill in rep.  But we'll see, the Seldom Plan might strike again.  It usually does.