I’m absolutely delighted that the interactive play 'A Moment of Madness' (game – puzzle – role play thingy…), that Katie Day, John Sear and I have been developing on and off for a while, has finally landed as a full-blown production.
I went to the run at the Birmingham Rep theatre this week and it was wonderful to see actors bringing the characters to life and real-life punters enjoying being spies in an immersive world of dodgy politicians, bent business people, sons and lovers, climate change and industrial pollution.
The piece is designed to support up to 20 people at a time, who come together as a group of spies, tasked with keeping an eye on ‘maverick’ environment minister, Michael Makerson MP, as he prepares to announce substantial Government funding for a new electric car manufacturing facility. Having been tipped off about Makerson’s habit of disappearing suddenly for clandestine meetings, audience members in groups of 3 or 4, head to a nearby car park, find a car to get into, discover a dossier of dodgy documents on the back seat and an active pay-as-you go-phone in the glove department - and wait to see what kicks off.
Meanwhile, an embittered campaigning journalist, a drunk drug-dealing brother-in law, a young student from Saudi Arabia and the head of security for a wealthy arms dealer are all converging on the car park…
The name of the game is to try to piece together what the hell is going on with Makerson, report back and what you think you’ve discovered, and as a group decide whether he’s done something illegal or immoral – or whether we should shred what we’ve found out and mind our own business.
The show is 90 mins or so long, but the time flies by because you have so much to do, to find out and to debate. As with many of the projects I end up being involved with, the most interesting thing soon becomes how the audience reacts and what they contribute in terms of story and opinion and judgement.
If you like the sound of this sort of thing, it’s heading to the Watermans Arts Centre next week, and will also head to Stockton-on-Tees and Lincoln later in the year. From there, Moment of Madness is looking for more bookings with venues that have both a good place for spies to meet up and a car park nearby. Do get in touch with The Other Way Works if you’d like to book the show for your town.
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