Swap 'til you drop!

'Allo folks. It's been too long. Dead sorry, but here's an update for you all. Basically Dave and I have been slaving over a hot theatre-pot to cook up something that speaks important truths and is somewhat edible. So Lidocaine/Helmand B is developing nicely as installation and stage show. The latter piece is what we're showing at the swapshop at The Point on Wednesday the 9th of March...so in 5 days time! We did our stage design yesterday and it's looking like an old fashioned camera, a picture box. With a mix of shadow play, projection, subtitling, dubbing and techno-interaction with our audience, this is starting to look like the B-movie/Afghan abstraction we were always looking for, justifying our creative choices. In short, it's coming together. We still have a long way to go but the Swapshop is going to aid us in this.

So not really much creative progress, more just polishing what we already have. Our next step after the swapshop is to explore the war itself as this only really goes up to death number 1 in the War on Terror. There are many more deaths, sufficed to say. But we definately want to include more live audio mixing and music so this may well be our next port of call. Milk Presents and Commotion will also be showing their work and we are really excited about it!

David

Sometimes...

...you can't make it on your own - sorry Dave, I had to go there. To be frank today was the first time we had a detailed outside eye view on Helmand (a B-movie). Shona, Katharine (new members), Sacha and Sarah all had a glimpse at our current workings and offered crucial advice on our next steps. We really need to be careful of placing the audience in the right context, giving the tools for analysis and then taking them with us on a clearly mapped out journey. In short, and cutting the pretentious waffle, we need to let them know more about Afghanistan and then put our stamp on events. Today we saw that our work does not yet let enough audience members who don't know much about this distant land in to the work. It's impenetrable, it's a touch on the chaotic but with no stability, no knowledge to compare it to; well, dumbfounded as a reaction is probably the least of our concerns. Still, food for thought, and with an Afghanistan shaped Gobo on the way I suspect that an informative yet interesting preface to our movie credits will be the way forward. Forget, "Do you know what ISAF is up to?" - what about, "What is The Propaganda Company up to!?" Haha! I jest, but it is a serious concern. If we do have an argument about the war, how can people join the debate if they don't know enough about the subject? And what's the point of informing the audience if we don't take an angle? Brains...Om nom nom.

David

The Paper Trail...

...is tedious and extremely handy.

Well, this is swell...

We have been rehearsing almost certainly all day, and although extremely tired we are dropping the internet a further update before nomnoms and then the pub.

Today has been a series of film editing and sketching up a running order of our work in progress Helmand (B-Movie), with the credits and the opening film sequences complete we will now be crafting and refining the live elements for the first 15 minutes of our pretty little show...

For your interest, here are our rehearsal notes so far, they're not quite a script, but then that would be spoiling it now, wouldn't it?

Dave

So you can see we've hard at work, putting the nation's numerous tax pennies to good use. Although contrary to what Dave says, we have not been working hard but merely plagiarising to the max! I jest. In reality, as the above documents show, the show is really starting to take shape. Using the structures of Romero and Castle in their classic b-movies, we've managed to sculpt ourselves a warped narrative that the Afghan war bleeds into damn well. We realised today that technical logistics mean that instead of using an increasing amount of singular projections, it'd be better to take a leaf out of the Precarious (Anomie, 2009) book and just run a continuous DVD, so we'll time the show's physical action accordingly. Muchos relief.

Our research into horror, and particularly zombies or demonic creatures has led us neatly into the realms of video games. Resident Evil is providing much inspiration for motion as well as visuals. Just check out the inspired dialogue and movement from this opening section of the original 1996 Capcom game. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW5CzlypV5A&feature=related

The Taliban and zombies make for an interesting parallel when you read into this recent article on US activities in Helmand province, the setting for our performance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12241803

"Come on, come out come and play," said the Marine sniper.

He spoke as he looked through his telescopic sight at a Taliban "spotter" who had just jumped behind a wall some 800m away. The man was not armed but was talking into a radio.

"Got P-I-D [positive identification]," said the sniper. "Cleared to engage." There was the suppressed crack of a silenced sniper round. The man fell to the ground.

"Enemy KIA (killed in action). Doin' the dead man dance."

"Good shooting, bro," came the reply.

These quotes in particular are a fascinating parallel to the world of hunting down the undead in the Romero movie. And those of today of course. So yes, exciting progress fans and thanks heartily for reading.

David

The advent of a new decade...

...was actually last year, since the naughties began on the 1st of January 2000. But never mind, let this be the start of a new decade of peace and unity. But I fear we are far from it folks. Our piece currently in production, Lidocaine/ Helmand: A B-Movie is a bilateral exploration of state control and influence, at home and abroad. The former, an interactive installation allows the audience to play at being a state, designing CCTV networks and coming up with laws to post onto the community clock tower. It also aims to challenge polarised views of how to run a state, intimating how thin and elastic the lines between anarchy and totalitarianism are, and how our own government dances in and out. We'll do this in quite a few ways, from the interactivity to real stories of power misuse and underuse.

The latter meanwhile is a standard seeming show operating within the comfortable confines of conventional theatre...one I really believe to be outdated for our own aims. It is a sufficient disguise for the Afghanistan/Horror flick narrative tie that we'll put up for tasting. Our objective is to highlight that the Afghan war follows an age old narrative governed by its fractious history and one that regularly matches that of the familiar horror films of Vincent Price et al. And that regardless of the moral objection to the outbreak and continuation of the war, it cannot be won in a total fashion. In a colossal underestimation of the consequences and requirements of the post-war government, we do more than rally for good against evil. We explore how we made every facet of the show, from hero to antagonist to dilemma - all except the resolution of course. For this show we're going to use as many different kinds of theatre as possible in an attempt to forge a multi-format message, one that survives through them all to discover a universal performance language between audience member and performer. What sticks? What's going to echo? What'll last in the heart and mind?

Our desire is to reignite interest in politics and the exposition of truth given the wide array of deceptions, half-truths and cover-ups the last decade has brought us.

On a practical level, our rehearsal week in the Creation Space at The Point starts and it is such a good space to inspire creation. Already the beginnings of an opening sequence and several movements have been choreographed. This'll be heavy, it'll be light, it'll be total.