Lockdown Theatre: "Events and Moments"
Background: Nearly ten years ago Em introduced me to Red Dwarf. I think I must have been much more innocent those years ago because watching it now it's ruder than I remember - but then Stargate is more violent than I remember when she introduced me to that too! (I only watch the non-violent episodes now.) Anyway, not having a way of watching it myself at that time and losing contact for a few years, I sort of forgot about RD. I do remember watching series X when it came out (Lemons!), but I'm not sure if XI and XII passed me by *shameface* - although in fairness XI and XII came out around the time my health was dropping off a cliff so I wouldn't be too surprised if I did indeed watch them and just have no memory of it.
Anyway, recently - I mean, two or three months ago - I caught the second half of an episode on Dave and found it absolutely hilarious, so immediately started watching all of Red Dwarf again on Netflix. For a couple of years I had already known it was on Netflix and just hadn't felt like watching it, but it turns out that was simply because I had forgotten how brilliant it was! And excellent timing too, as it gave me time enough to dive headlong into becoming a Red Dwarf fan and to really thoroughly appreciate the most recent instalment, 'The Promised Land'.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, three of those instrumental to the original few series of Red Dwarf, Rob Grant (writer and co-creator), Paul Jackson (producer) and Ed Bye (director) have been doing commentaries of episodes once a week via Zoom webinar. I found out after the second or third one, I think, but I didn't sign up for them because it can be hard to hear and they can be very rude at times, plus I did not want to commit myself; they go up on YouTube afterwards which solves each problem because I can skip back to relisten to bits I didn't catch, I can skip forward if it becomes too rude, and I can watch them in my own time when I'm feeling up to it. They sometimes have special guests for the commentaries, but this week they did something extra-special:
Lockdown Theatre is a specially designed initiative to serve up original entertainment in these troubled times.
Every writer has a treasured script that never got made - the one that got away. We're giving those scripts the opportunity to see the light of day.
The opening show is by Oscar®-winning screenwriter James Hendrie, and it's a 30 minute sci-fi mystery, rippled through with delicious dark comedy.
We've assembled an amazingly stellar cast including Chris Barrie, Hattie Hayridge, Iwan Rheon, Robert Lindsay, Martin Kemp, Felicity Montagu, Lee Cornes, Frances Barber and Ruby Wax, to bring it to life at a live table reading, broadcast at 2pm on Zoom on Sunday.
It's directed by Ed Bye, produced by Paul Jackson, and Rob Grant will be serving the interval Häagen-Dazs. There'll also be a Q&A afterwards.
It's a new kind of theatre for the lockdown era. Don't miss it.
The script was called "Events and Moments", and all I can really say about it is 'tighten your timeline'.
This one isn't going onto YouTube, though I am pleased to see it was recorded anyway. We were told that if any of us did record it (I'll be honest, I was tempted to try, purely for personal rewatching purposes only, but ended up deciding against it and just to enjoy it as it happened) then by all means it was absolutely NOT to be shared anywhere because they didn't have permission from all the actors to do so, and if it were leaked anywhere there would be great upset and they'd not be able to do another one. Which is why I'm wanting to write snippets of the chat afterwards that I remember, and just get my thoughts about the whole event out of my head and recorded. Some are a bit more serious and some are very frivolous points!
- The main attraction for me was one actor in particular; if his name hadn't been there I probably wouldn't have signed up, to be honest, and I'm exceptionally glad I did! Although I didn't recognise maybe half of the names initially, several of those I did recognise the faces and went 'Oh! It's *him*/*her*!' which was quite cool.
- Mum noticed that it looked like Ruby Wax was wearing a crown, the way she was aligned perfectly under the lights for much of it *grin*
- One of the cast had a Skype call come through in the middle of it! Hilarity ensued for half a minute or so.
- They had props! A walking stick, bedsheets, a black thimble that turned green when used to make a phone call (? I think?), sun hats and visors, a phone, the standard release stack of papers waved in answer to any quibbles.
- Lily Grant and George Jaques are not on the playbill as they were standbyes (understudies?) in case anybody's internet dropped out (good idea!). Thankfully that didn't happen - possibly the only time actors might be relieved we didn't need to hear them?
L-R top-bottom: Chris Barrie, Laila Zaidi, Martin Kemp, Lee Cornes // Lily Grant, Frances Barber, Ed Bye, Robert Lindsay // Iwan Rheon, Ruby Wax, George Jaques, Julian Moore Cook // Olivia Nixon & Felicity Montagu, Maddy & Marina Bye (they were sitting the opposite way round), Hattie Hayridge
- Rob Grant said at the beginning that the script was unlikely to ever be made now because of Black Mirror (which I have never watched), but afterwards it was left open as perhaps a remote possibility if anyone wanted to commission it.
- It was originally written back in the 80s or 90s for Grant Naylor, though I'm not quite sure if it was for a series idea or what exactly. James Hendrie said when he wrote it he was the same age as Michael started in the story, and now it's come to life he's about the age of Michael at the end.
- One of them said it felt really very strange to be asking Robert Lindsay just to read stage directions, but he found all of the gags written in there plus some that James Hendrie hadn't known were in there!
- Ruby Wax has a ... something, I didn't catch it - Frazzled Café? Ah yes https://www.frazzledcafe.org/about
- They hope to do more; the next script they have in mind is by Rob Grant. I did wonder if it might be a lost Red Dwarf script (Bodysnatcher, or Dad, maybe? I'm not sure how much of either of those they covered in special DVD feature/s. Ah, some info here) but Mr Grant has written much more than RD so that might be a very narrow-minded wondering on my part.
- There were musings of how much of this format could be taken into or inform productions post-pandemic. Artistically it's obviously not the same and they did say that rehearsing in person it's easier to get the timing right - but just as a total layperson it seems to me like it might be cheaper and easier to co-ordinate something like this for at least an initial table read than needing a venue, possibly paying travel expenses (I don't know if they do, or if cast pay for travel themselves - either way it would be cheaper without travel), catering, and far easier to co-ordinate schedules if cast are in different parts of the country without needing travel time.
- My own further thought: This would make the arts so much more physically accessible for anyone with decent internet. No travel expenses or time, no needing to plan where/when to eat (or budget for it), no geographical barriers with an event being the wrong end of the country to attend, only seldom being too soon after work - or too late, for those working night shifts, even - and for so many ill people, no being exhausted after just travelling and only half-enjoying the evening, and for disabled people, no having to check accessibility beforehand! The only other consideration would be subtitles or a transcript of some kind, but if these were paid events then surely people could reasonably be expected to put that effort in. For this as a free event with the cast volunteering their time and the production team also volunteering themselves and not being pros with the tech, I personally don't think it's unreasonable that they didn't do that. But for a paid event, rather than a gift as this was, it would be reasonable to employ someone to find out how to do that and to do it.
- This really was a gift in my view; the commentaries are too, of course, but this was special. It was an event I could attend and I didn't have to worry about spending energy on ...
- finding out if the venue was accessible (most at least have arrangements in place now, but you generally have to phone them up which is stressful in itself, then you're never quite certain it will all go to plan until it happens),
- planning the journey and either booking assistance (if it were in London, it takes us an hour to drive and get the train from the nearest accessible station [our nearest two inaccessible train stations are equidistant at 5 mins away each], then another hour or more depending on which route is accessible once we actually get to London) or finding where to park and maybe having to phone up to reserve a Blue Badge space in advance,
- checking before we go that no lifts have broken down at stations we need,
- planning where to eat and either investigating whether that's accessible or having a backup in case we don't investigate and it turns out not be - we genuinely have just had to give up and eat outside in the rain before!,
- having to expend mental energy on constantly scanning the pavements ahead to make sure there are dropped kerbs where I need them, and navigating pedestrians (it is tiring driving even just a small powerchair!),
- getting to the venue early enough in case accessibility arrangements are less straightforward than they claim to be
- and honestly, it does take mental energy to keep my expectations lowered from 'I'll soak in every last detail of this experience' to 'I'll just enjoy what I can and be grateful I could attend',
- lugging litres of water with me in attempting to stave off the inevitable fatigue/overstimulation headache,
- wearing enough layers to keep warm (whilst being able to peel off if the venue is hot) and taking a big enough blanket for when I get cold,
- doing the scanning pavements and navigating pedestrians and all the rest of the journey in reverse, hoping lifts haven't broken down in the meantime and thus needing to take a different route (taking extra time, of course),
- needing to flag down members of staff at the tube and train stations to phone through to the destination station to make sure there's someone with a ramp the other end,
- dealing with miscommunications about assistance and always the slight fear that nobody will be where we need to get off,
- plus the inevitable crash for the next days/weeks.
... clearly, an event has to be REALLY special to be worth all that! So I really appreciate, so very much, being able to just casually sign up for something, enjoy it, and not have to deal with ANY of that palaver (and I didn't even need to spend precious energy getting dressed - I could just use all my available energy in fully enjoying it!).
[ ^ I was considering putting all that list under a cut but actually this is why I am so exceptionally grateful for this kind of virtual event and the main reason I want to make this public. It's a lot, but it's the reality for so many of us - and I'm not even particularly sensitive to various types of chemicals from fragrances/cleaning products/usw., sensory input, temperature beyond being cold, etc.]
So as an audience member and due to all of the above: WOW. I mean, WOW! The only non-great bit was that it was hard to hear in places, but everything else about it was wonderful. It was clear the cast were enjoying themselves which is always great to see, and pre-pandemic really the only times you'd get something like this in public would be at a convention, which is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people and prohibitively exhausting for people like me.
[I have considered whether to try attending any for certain programmes or to see certain actors but honestly just the thought of being there is overwhelming, without even considering the logistics of it - packing, the day of travelling, having to find food, not sleeping very well somewhere new, having to get up, get dressed, get to the venue, and then somehow navigate the crowds and overstimulation ... I cannot imagine being able to do it for one day, let alone multiple days. It was bad enough to contemplate on foot but to attempt at wheelchair height adds another layer of overwhelm! Even theocratic conventions would now be too exhausting to do by myself and/or staying away somewhere, so something completely new is just not even something I feel I can consider until I'm a lot better.]
And my final thought. For a few years now I've found listening is usually easier than than reading, but I'd not got round to listening to any audiobooks until a couple of weeks ago when I started on one of the Red Dwarf audiobooks - and to my surprise I found it exhausting. Then today was harder work mentally than I had anticipated, and this evening I realised it was because with fiction ine has to create the mental image oneself. I used to be rather good at that as a child, but thinking about it I've found it much harder in adulthood; certainly hardest now with brainfog, but for years if I've not had any visual reference I find it very hard to create a mental image. When I have a reference I can then visualise things fairly easily, but I think that's different from *creating* an image. In my teens R did a couple of psychological experiments on our friendship group, the 'imagine you're driving along a road, describe your car' kind and I could ONLY imagine my own car and a real journey I used to do regularly, and the same with the other, I could only visualise something real. When a colleague asked us to imagine different things when he was explaining aphantasia to us, again I could visualise only real things. With the Red Dwarf novel, the hardest part to follow mentally was what was set before the series - when it got to the characters and settings we know from the TV series it was suddenly very much easier, I think because I could then visualise rather than having to try to imagine. I've only just identified the difference, and this morning the difficulty was *imagining* the world and characters, then once sort of established a fuzzy world in my mind it was slightly easier to follow. But I think that's probably why I no longer really read fiction, whereas non-fiction is much easier because I usually have a visual reference already (though much of it is Horrible Histories-style still, mixed with imagery from documentaries and Time Team!) Even listening to Cabin Pressure, I had a visual reference of what the actors looked like, but it still took a couple of series to build a reasonably clear mental picture of that world.
Okay, wow, lots and lots of ramble. I do want to make this public so I'd better put a few cuts in to make it slightly less intimidating! Oh darn it, and fix some HTML ...
If some of the spacing is messed up, I apologise but I think I've finally given up on trying to tweak the HTML to perfection! *headdesk*