Surprise!
21:52 Going to bed now, but I’ll try to post some more considered thoughts once I’ve slept on it.
21:51 Andy Dickson at the Guardian says they are hoping to make the stream available on demand tomorrow – I hope they do that with the ones to come as well.
21:50 The question Mark Ravenhill asked was ‘What is your “ideal theatre”‘?
21:49 Rather engaging hearing peoples’ chat in the auditorium when I’m certain they don’t know they can be overheard on the stream…
21:48 The others were April de Angelis, Tim Crouch, Chris Goode, Zinnie Harris, Ella Hickson, Gregory Motton, Philip Ridley, Simon Stephens.
21:45 And with ‘Everyone breathes easier when there’s a cat in the room’ we’re out. Applause and – roll credits. There is a list of the playwrights whose views are included but it went through too quickly for me to catch it. Howard Barker was one.
21:44 Maybe you have to be there – and certainly the audience in the house seems to be having more fun than I am at home – but it’s coming across as slightly banal to me.
21:43 People making guesses about who said what: Caryl Churchill? Lucy Kirkwood?
21:42 Now we’re on the audience at The Royal Court, and the possible fire-bombing of – some laughs on offer here.
21:40 and from the chat stream… “o”: ‘has this a plot? or has it lost it?’
21:37 We don’t seem to be in the theatre now, or hearing about the theatre – we’ve moved onto transgression and onto male and female subjectivities – although it does spin back to the ‘ideal theatre’ – sort of.
21:34 My stream, which has been immaculate to this point, is struggling a bit at the moment.
21:33 181 viewers.
21:32 Twenty-five minutes in and I’m feeling a bit… ho hum.
21:31 Apparently this is called Cakes and Finance – the Royal Court has just revealed this in a Tweet.
21:29 It does feel as if Mark Ravenhill is enjoying this now, at least more than he was at the start – it’s become more of a performance, with more pleasure in the language and less focus on the (unremarkable?) ideas.
21:25 Some love on the chat stream for “RobertElkin”, enthusiasm for that last comment.
21:24 more from the chat stream… “RobertElkin”: ‘How can you not be enjoying this? It’s a variety of voices airing their thoughts on the one thing that’s brought us all here to this website.’
21:23 Tweet from @andydickson: ‘Trying to guess the voices being done – who’s the playwright who can only contemplate October …? (Quite agree btw)’
21:20 from the chat stream… via “e”: ‘ah. click..its the other playwrites verbatim opinions on their ideal theatres!’
21:19 Down to 198 viewers now, which feels quite modest, although this is also being presented via the Guardian.
21:17 Visually, this is just a single unchanging mid-shot. It’s smart and sort-of funny, but I think I’m a little underwhelmed so far.
21:16 The lecture is parcelled out in sections by a female off-screen voice speaking brief headings.
21:15 The slides include patisserie, cityscapes, architectural details.
21:14 So if @DanRebellato is right and this is a ‘verbatim meditation’, does that mean that these comments about theatre are quoted from others. If so, who? Does it matter?
21:12 Interesting to see the chat window alongside the Royal Court stream, although the comments so far are pretty unremarkable.
21:12 The Royal Court stream says it currently has 211 viewers at http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/opencourtlive/
21:10 @DanRebellato tweets (having seen this earlier in the evening): ‘Tonight’s Surprise Theatre @royalcourt was a brilliant, funny, and oddly inspiring verbatim meditation on ideal theatre by @markravenhill ‘
21:07 It’s a kind of a lecture, about an ideal theatre, about the qualities of an idealised space. It’s not clear if this is a lecture or a performance, or both.
21:06 He says that audiences crave the provocative and the challenging and the unexpected…
21:05 Mark Ravenhill is at a podium, with slides being projected behind.
21:03 I wasn’t actually planning to blog the first surprise theatre from the Royal Court, but then I thought I would, so here I am.
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