Everybody's dead, Dave

fics'n'fanworks masterpost of my fics, fanvids, podfics and webweaves. also tagged stuff i made along with gifs and creative stuff that doesn't fall under the pembersmith fanworks umbrella

TAGS OF NOTE

percy irl ~ personal things // percy werk ~ stuff about my job // percy.wav ~ audio things // percy.mov ~ filmmaking things // photo diary ~ pictures i have taken

i like to go digital dumpster diving or talk about just archivist things. as part of that you will find examples of transcribed audio

other things i enjoy include illustration and (stop motion) animation ~ skulls and bones ~ fyeahgayvampires ~ spaces and places ~ greek mythology ~ folk and fairy tales ~ electronic music ~ podcasts ~ improv comedy ~ sci fi ~ general goth shit ✌🏻

ANGSTY THINGS

the bats on the ceiling are spelling out the word turmoil // modern life is rubbish // ai bullshit

JOYFUL THINGS

cats make everything better // this is so stupid i love it // hope as a radical act

NA: Now, 15 years ago, the play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit had its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe. This one-person show has gone on to be performed around the world - starring actors from John Hurt to Whoopi Goldberg, Miriam Margolyes to Dominic West. The play changes every night. Each performance begins with a guest actor arriving on stage and being handed the script. They don't know anything about what they're going to perform until that moment in front of a live audience.

The play is back in London this month, running until the autumn with a cast of actors including Riz Ahmed, Jodie Whittaker, and Christopher Eccleston. Well, I'm joined now by the writer Nassim Soleimanpour and the actor who was handed the script on the 8th of June during a run of the play currently taking place at the Duchess Theatre in London, Lucian Msamati.

So, Nassim, why did you want to create a play that requires no rehearsal, no set, and a different actor at each performance?

NM: Oh, hi. Well the play has never really been about not rehearsing, to be honest. To me, it's about discovering what becomes possible when we let go of certainty. I really trust this hive mind of 500-600 people and I think the history of the show somehow has proven this. And once you get an actor like Lucian, for example, they manage to take you to a different place. Like watching him, to be honest, walk on stage without having read a single word beforehand wasn't actually anything that I would call terrifying. It was actually very reassuring to me. If someone can embrace the unknown with that much generosity, trust me, the audience immediately follows.

NA: (laughs) Well, we've gotta ask you, Lucian - why did you agree to this?

LM: Well, that's very flattering. Thank you, Maestro Nassim. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You know, where else do you get a chance to go, you know, the enactment of the so-called 'actor's nightmare?' No script, no rehearsal, no preparation: get on stage in front of 500 people. But it was once in a lifetime. And as Nassim said, it's not about the lack of preparation. It's about that moment of being together and of trusting that when you jump out of the metaphorical aeroplane without the necessary parachute, you are assured of a safe landing. And that actually what you need to do is to make a virtue of the fact that - even as the winds buffet you here and there - you are exactly where you're supposed to be. So just keep going.

NA: I love how you wrung out that metaphor, Lucian. *laughs) o here's there's a thing about White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, and it's that it has this kind of almost Mousetrap ... Mousetrappian secrecy around it. You're not allowed to discuss exactly what happens. So, I'll ask this carefully, Lucian. Tell me about being handed the script. What does that moment feel like for you?

LM: It feels like being handed the baton to a relay race and you're about to run the final leg of the 100m gold medal 4x100 relay. It's a mixture of adrenaline, of excitement, but also it has to be said, curiosity. That's also the thrill. You know, you have agreed to do this. I personally come from an improv background - having done a lot of improv - so stepping in front of an audience quote-unquote "not knowing" is sort of a natural wheelhouse for me. But at the same time, there's the thrill of the unknown going, "Well, but then whatever is in front of me, I must honour". If these words, if this piece that has been carried for, you know, X number of thousand performances, it's now my turn. Let me handle it with honour and just be present and not let the adrenaline take me too far.

NA: Nassim, explain to us why is it necessary for the actor to be completely in the dark and... Well, they don't even know the genre of the play! Why is that necessary?

NM: Well, look what's happening here. I didn't know what you're going to ask me and I'm not ready for that. And I think that that what makes it fun, right? There is - I was born in a country where Islam, of course, is practiced and I was raised in that society. They have this saying in Islam that they say, "Hell is the embodiment of your sins in front of your eyes". And I think that's the constant life of a playwright, right? You make all these mistakes and you have to see it again and again and again. When you do the cold read, that's okay - no one is rehearsed. We can all make mistakes. But for a good reason. That is the machinery of the play. So I think "why not" is the short answer. Let's do it, right?

NA: You mentioned your background. Now you wrote the play having refused military service in Iran and you weren't allowed to leave the country. One thing you are happy to say about the play is that it is "as much about contemporary Iran as the rest of the world." I'm really interested to know how the play speaks to Iran today. You wrote it 15 years ago and Iran has gone through so much change. How does it talk to contemporary Iran?

NM: It does to the contemporary world and to the contemporary Iran, you're right. Well, I refused to do military service and now with the war that is happening... somehow it says something about my decision! But I remember when Brexit happened, for example, I got lots of emails from audience members in the UK telling me, "Oh, this play is about our country". When the American election got very heated, I got it from the Americans. To be honest, I think the play has survived in a way because it refuses to become a museum piece about my country. Every new performer, every new language, every new time somehow pulls it back into the present.

NA: I want to ask you both about this extraordinary cast that the play attracts. Lucian, you're following John Hurt, Whoopi Goldberg, Riz Ahmed's coming after you, Nathan Lane has done it. Why are actors so willing to sign up to what you've already described as The Actor's Nightmare?!

LM: It's magical. It really is magical and there is nothing like being forced to be present. And also, you know, there is such a spirit of theatrical experimentation. You are in the hands of such a willing, such a warm and welcoming audience who are in on it with you, that you just... it's an offer you simply cannot refuse.

NA: Nassim, what does it add to you to have such starry names appearing in the play?

NM: I'm flattered, mate! I mean, I don't know! You know, in the evenings sometimes I take myself seriously, but in the morning I wake up and I'm like, "What? Are they gonna do it?" It's stunning, to be honest.

NA: I have to say I've never seen the play and I know quite a bit. I've read a lot about it. I'm fascinated by it. The thing that fascinates me most, Lucian, is that I wonder if this is theatre in its purest form. Theatre is about the moment that you create with an audience in a space and it never happens again. And on the 8th of June, you were there and that moment will never happen again. Would you say - here's my question! - is this pure theatre or is it an elaborate table read?

LM: (laughs) I have never been at an elaborate table read, thank you very much! It's pure theatre. It's community. It's no frills, no quote-unquote "BS". It's people trying to understand each other, coming together in a moment of magic communion. We have always done that as human beings. That is who we are. And if anything, this is an endorsement and a celebration of that. So more, please! I look forward to those who are going to be in the hot seat after me.

NA: Now, I happen to know that you've just finished writing The Godot Diaries. It's all about your role as Estragon in Waiting for Godot. And it struck me that's an example of a script where everything is so meticulously rehearsed and very tightly scripted. It struck me that there can't be two more different experiences in theatre, or... or am I wrong there?

LM: Well, it's interesting because they actually share DNA. You are always stepping into something unknown. The interpretation, the feeling, the moment is always in the gift of the audience. And in fact, a play like Godot specifically really teaches you to be totally in the service of the writing, totally in the service of the moment, and totally in the service of the relationship with your fellow performers and through that, the audience. So they are... I count them as very much two sides of the same coin. And I'm not sparing Maestro Nassim's blushes putting him in the same bracket as Maestro Beckett.

NM: Oh no, brother, I'm flattered!

NA: That's quite the accolade. Let me ask you, Nassim, the: it's been performed around the world and it's always performed in local languages. Are you consulted about translations and why do you think it's travelled so far?

NM: Hmm. There are some instructions that we send to the translator. It's a cold read, you know, there are details that we have to consider because of the performer who comes in. Why? I don't know. I think many reasons. One is the one that I gave you about the museum value. I also think in a way, to be honest, it's like a frozen scream in time. I wrote it - without spoiling the play - I wrote it out of the reason that I didn't do military service, right? And I wanted to tour and I wanted to communicate. So I just asked actors to perform it and it worked like a message in a bottle. All these brave performers, all these brave producers, audience members, they somehow got connected.