work.txt (Modern Plays)

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An adaptation of Ellis’s recent show work.txt, it mixes existential soul-searching with wry comedy, tempered by the quiet cry of a world yearning to reinvent itself. Work.txt is a show about work in which the audience do all (well… most of) the work. Only they tread the boards as there are no actors; following instructions projected on the wall, communicated over headphones or printed out onto a script. They build the set, read lines and act out what needs acting out together (if they are okay with that), alone (if they volunteer) or just as witnesses (if they prefer) to the others, the interplay between audience and screen, and to the light show and music, aided by an atmospheric haze machine. Nathan Ellis said, "I wrote the show as a sort of satire of the always-on, never-stopping work culture, and then the whole world stopped because of COVID. As the pandemic recedes, it's fascinating and depressing to see how the energy of just-getting-going-again is mirrored by the play. I hope work.txt asks big questions about why we're all working so hard, and if we can't imagine a different sort of relationship to work. The show is about community and working together and play - it literally doesn't happen without the audience, so I'm thrilled it's happening in-person again at the Soho Theatre. I'm excited to get to work." So far I have only worked with brilliant directors, and that helps. I made a decision with SHR to just trust the director entirely, and it has, fortunately, paid off. I spent the first week making small tweaks to the text to fit the brilliant actors, and answering questions when they came up and I could be helpful, but my creative interventions in rehearsal are very limited. I’m amazed by what the other creatives have come up with, I don’t have better answers than them.

In A Fairie Tale, Niall Moorjani seamlessly blends the threads of racial identity, queerness and folklore to create a fantastical and poignant picture of modern Scotland. Read the full review here. Photo: Niall Moorjani Are you the type of writer who carries a pen and pad around waiting for inspiration to strike, or do you actively go looking for stories? Everyone should see work.txt. The play, if it can be called a play, is an immersive show experienced collectively through audience interaction. Because of this experimental quirk, your experience of the will obviously differ from mine. This does make it somewhat difficult to review having only seen it once, as it’s entirely possible that the experiment lives and dies depending on who is (or isn’t) in the room. With creative yet simple staging, and a cyclical structure, Some Kind of Theatre's The Grandmothers Grimm makes for a bold and moving tribute to the overlooked and marginalised women present in the story of the Brothers Grimm. Read our full review here. Photo: Grant JamiesonAnd rather good we are, too. Fed lines by an officious “chat function”, we become an online community mesmerised by a social media brand manager who, having been frozen in digital limbo, is now a viral sensation. People log on just to stare. If that wasn’t self-referential enough, there’s also a theatre director responding to these “unprecedented times” by showcasing “ordinary people doing nothing digitally”.

This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong lays bare the disturbing realities of life in a surveillance state – a vital and groundbreaking piece of work. Read our full review here. Photo: Tangle Photography But this is the wrong question. Or at least, it’s a question that is easily answered: ‘because I do not know which work I should be doing.’ This leads to a better question: ‘what is the nature of the work that I am doing?’. Asking this helps us begin to answer the current beneath all these work-questions, ‘what is the work that I want to do?’.

work.txt

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Upcoming about your new play, Super High Resolution. What can you tell us about the play and what can audiences expect? None of these details are for certain. Some are likely to recur from show to show, others will be totally unique to the moment. We learn and infer more about each other as we tell a story together. Our protagonist is Dan (who knows who yours will be). He stops working and an image of him lying on the ground captures the public imagination. We do our best to tell this story.

Are there any writers who influence or inspire you at all? Have any particular plays stood out for you in recent years? He is in a friend group called 이즈 (ee-z) with Stray Kids I.N, Enhypen Heeseung and Just B Lim Jimin. (Beomgyu’s vLive – Dec 2, 2021) The content is just a bit too pleased with itself, and forgets to make the point it came here for, but there is something in it. Perhaps if it spent less time trying to convince the naysayers.

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Acting on stage can provide an immediate response to your work as the audience applaud – writing is a far more isolated endeavour. Do you find solace in that, or do you yearn for collaboration, either during the writing process or when it gets to the rehearsal room? Alongside its fast cars, dizzying theatrical devices and pounding beats, Common Wealth's Peaceophobia counters prejudice with stories of humour, passion, and belief. Read our full review here. Photo: Ian Hodgson Dykegeist @ Summerhall (★★★★)