Wed 8 Sep, 6pm
Pavilion Theatre Bar
An opportunity to be part of the testing ground for Hydrocracker’s new site-specific production commissioned for Brighton Festival 2011.
How Are You Feeling? is a darkly comic dystopian vision set inside a working hospital. Artistic Directors Richard Hahlo and Jem Wall will present extracts of the script, joined by its award-winning author Fin Kennedy.
Hydrocracker’s previous Brighton Festival commission Shakespeare à la Carte returns to Brighton Dome this Autumn in a supper club format on Thu 25 & Fri 26 November.
Free, but limited availability. If you would like to attend, e-mail ad@brightondome.org including “Work in Progress: How Are You Feeling?” in the subject line.
jem wall
31 August, 2010
We’ve been researching this piece by talking to doctors, nurses and patients in an attempt to get a sense of the pressures on the NHS. We’re planning to open the show in dis-used parts of a hospital in Brighton at next years festival. We’re really keen to get some early audience feedback on the work which will help us develop it further. Please come along and be a ‘lab rat’!
Jem Wall.
Richard Hahlo
4 September, 2010
The play in part deals with the issue of ‘anti-aging’ and the desire to extend our allotted time on the earth. All a bit science fiction…until you start looking into the research and seeing what various people are up to in the field of trying to stem or reverse the aging process. As the world’s resources are getting more stretched, the privileged few want to find ways to elongate their life span and to offer that opportunity to others…but who would you choose and how? Come along and join us on the evening of the 8th to enter into the debate…
sue maclaine
9 September, 2010
I really enjoyed beig part of this evening. It was great seeing the Pavilion bar used in this way. In terms of the piece, I think the ideas are exciting; the possibility of lots of different strands/stories. However I came away with the thought that being an audience member for this play may make me feel a bit sulky and manipulated.
‘Do i really want to be herded around a hospital and told I have inoperable cancer’? That is an extreme and exaggerated reaction but nevertheless there is a niggle of that somewhere for me. I look forward to seeing how the play develops from this first draft…
A sideways thought/observation; the gender divide in the audience…last night there was majority women and I think that was the same for my reading. It seems work-in progress events are better supported by women and that female practitioners are more willing to support their male colleagues than vice versa. I wonder if that is the case?
Anyway back to ‘And how are you feeling?’ Good luck and onwards
Diane Cowan
9 September, 2010
I found the ‘In Progress’ performance very interesting and after initially feeling that I might be starved of some of the action by the choices I make in the final piece, I realised that life is full of choices and you don’t get to go back to see the other one’s you didn’t make (not even with Reversatron!)….so I whole heartedly approve of the idea. With regard to people objecting to being herded around, again the choice is theirs, to go and see the play or not to see the play.
I would also add that I don’t think that knowing the history of the building in which the action takes place, would have any impact on the play as it could be set in any hospital, anywhere at any point in the future. If the history is of interest perhaps it could be explained in the programe accompaning the performance on the night, rather than trying to cram it into the play.
Having been to the Pinter piece a few years and having felt some moments of personal trauma, (although that made it all the more real for me), I do think it would be a good idea to have an advisory note stating the general theme of ‘potentially’ terminal cancer as I that evoke a greater reation in a larger number people.
Overall I left, last night, feeling very excited, slightly disturbed but wishing it wasn’t another 8 months before I could see the finished piece!! Roll on May ’11
Richard Hahlo
13 September, 2010
Thanks for these comments and thanks all for coming along last week. I agree it was great to see the Pavilion bar full and being used as a place for work to be aired and discussed; and it was great to have such a lively (female majority) audience. Yes I think there will be adverse reactions from some audience members about being moved about and endowed with a serious medical condition. But let’s face it many audiences (myself sometimes included) have an adverse reaction from sitting comfortably in the dark being bored by some play being performed somewhere in the distance. This play will no doubt be challenging and uncomfortable at times and I love the fact that the Brighton Festival encourages, promotes and supports that kind of work. I also agree that the history of the hospital is fascinating. It also became important regarding our work being more widely seen and for possible funding that this play has the potential to tour beyond Brighton; therefore an over reliance on the particular site does not make sense. The finished play has to be robust enough to stand on its own and to play different locations and sites.
Thank you and best wishes, Richard (Hydrocracker)
Richard Hahlo
13 September, 2010
At the end of the event we asked the audience How Are You Feeling? And asked them to write on piece of paper – this is what we got:
• Fantastic Great show!
• Sad
• Intrigued
• Entertained – but not bothered by audience participation
• Excited
• Intrigued
• Inspired
• Stimulated
• A fascinating and well-chosen theme. Impressed by treatment (no pun!). This bar. Likely to engage new audiences.
• Feeling excited by your idea and the possibilities. The game playing /sci-fi elements particularly struck me. I’m also feeling that maybe some of this audience missed the point and needed too much reality and were too concerned with offending their audience and the NHS! Be Brave!
• More frightened than when I arrived
• I’m fine thanks!
• Interested in seeing the piece
• I feel excited and slightly worried, and am REALLY looking forward to seeing the finished piece!
• A bit sweaty but really inspired (by the show not the sweat!)
• Hot and tired
• Truly exciting
• A bit of a chesty cold & a bit blue but otherwise fine
• Nervous & excited
• Excited but slightly scared
• Hot!
• Hungry! Thanks
• Which celeb who didn’t win ‘Strictly’ made the most improvement from a non-dancer to a dancer? (I think this was probably left over in the collecting box! – RH)
Imogen
18 September, 2010
Did anyone see the first Episode of the new series of QI last night? It featured a question on none other than your Jelly fish! Finger on the pulse there gentlemen (Oh dear, medical pun not intended)
Laura Chrostowski
21 September, 2010
I just thought I would share with you an email we recived from one of our members. Thanks to Mr David Harrison for your support, and for allowing me to post your wonderful comments!
“Bravo to Brighton Dome & Festival for an inspired innovation which allows the performing arts and their audiences to engage with each other in mutually rewarding ways.
In Process/In Performance, centred on the Dome, has let Members share in the creative process behind performances they would not usually encounter until the lights dim.
I’ve seen ZooNation’s dancers and voice artists five days into rehearsal of their new hip hop show, the dress rehearsal of Actors of Dionysus’s latest contemporary take on classic Greek drama and, following their inventive forays into Shakespeare and Orton, Hydrocracker in the formative stages of a challenging new play about health care for next year’s Festival.
These and other fascinating opportunities, including workshops and discussions, leave you with a satisfying sense of involvement and the knowledge too that your feedback to the creators and performers is genuinely valuable in shaping their work.
More of this, please.”